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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI17082900/00001
Notes
- Scope and Content:
- Charter 77, Declaration of Independence, Dissent, Foreign Policy, Forum 2000, Garton Ash (Timothy), Human Rights, Kleptocracy, Legacy (Havel), Lincoln (Abraham), Michnik (Adam), National Endowment for Democracy, NATO, Navalny (Alexei), Palous (Martin), Paya (Oswaldo), Pope John Paul II, Power of the Powerless, Putin, Responsibility, Russia, Solidarity, Syria, Trump, Uncanny Era.
- Biographical:
- Carl Gershman was born in New York City in 1943. He has been president of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) for more than 30 years. The organization describes itself as an American, congressionally-funded institution aiming to “strengthen democratic institutions around the world through non-governmental efforts.” In this Havel Conversations interview, Gershman singles out Cuba, China, Russia and North Korea as countries currently of particular interest.
Gershman first met Václav Havel following the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, on a visit the then-Czechoslovak president made to the United States. While Gershman suggests he never knew Havel “personally very well,” he stresses that the NED and the Havel administration developed a mutually beneficial relationship over the years that followed. Gerhsman remembers with particular fondness an event the NED organized with Havel at the Library of Congress in 2007 at which dissidents from around the world spoke. Here, he also reflects upon written contributions Havel made to the NED’s journal, and a memorial service his institution organized for Havel in Washington, D.C. in 2012.
Gershman suggests he frequently finds himself quoting from Havel’s writings and that he has increasingly identified with Havel’s legacy over the course of his own “political evolution since the 1980s.” He states that he finds Václav Havel’s ideas on individual responsibility – and the ability of individuals to make a difference – particularly inspiring. Similarly, Havel’s insistence that politics address spiritual as well as material questions resonates strongly with Gerhsman’s own views.
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