Centrul pentru Cercetarea Istoriei Relatiilor Internationale si Studii Culturale "Grigore Gafencu"

„Grigore Gafencu” Research Center, funded in 2004, is devoted to the study of the history of the European and extra-European international relations, an area of investigation covered with specialists and young researchers for the period starting from mid-19th century to the beginning of the 21st century. Topics such as Romania’s foreign policy during the 19th and 20th century, Romania’s relations with France, Italy, Spain, Finland, the Baltic states, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Balkan countries, the history of minorities, the Nansen Commission's activity have been developed in books, articles published in peer-reviewed journals, papers presented at national and international conferences, Ph.D. works.

The center is involved in a number of international and national research grants. One of the most important such a research has dealt with Europe as viewed from the margins: an East-Central European perspective during the 19th and 20th centuries. The center was also a partner with numerous institutions in the research grant entitled The Changing Image of Europeanness. The Political Use of History as an Instrument of Identity Politics, coordinated by Aleksanteri Institute of Helsinki University.

The center is actively involved in research, conference hosting and publication. So far, it was a host of two international conferences and a number of national seminars. It organzies a monthly seminar and „the reading hour” and is also issuing its own peer-reviewed biannual review, Valahian Journal of Historical Studies, which has now reached to its 14th issue. The journal has been included in the CEEOL, Ebsco, IndexCopernicus, SCIPIO and Ulrich’s databasis.

The center is also coordinating, alongside the Doctoral School of Valahia University of Targoviste, the research activities of some 20 Ph.D. students, of which 12 are members of the center.

Additionally, the center is engaged in exchanges and common projects with numerous European institutions of research from Finland in the north to Italy and Spain in the south. The center is aiming at maintaining and developing these fruitful contacts and to promote new ones with other prestigious institutions of research at academic level whose scopes are similar and bordering its purposes.

What We Do

The research center bearing Grigore Gafencu`s name is focusing on research and study of the history of the European international relations, an area of investigation covered with specialists and young researchers for the period starting with the mid-19th century and focused on the 20th century. The center has already been involved in a number of national research grants founded by the Romanian Ministry of Education and in international grants. The center is also issuing its own review, Valahian Journal of Historical Studies, which has been opened ever since its inception to the voluntary contributions of fellow researchers from all around Europe and beyond.

Additionally, the center has been engaged from the very beginning in developing connections with other European institutions of research. Thus far, the center and its members are involved in academic exchanges with such universities from Finland (University of Helsinki and University of Turku), France (Universite de Poitiers, Universite de Savoie), Greece (University Democritus of Komotini), Italy (Universite ca Foscari di Venezia) and Spain (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha). The center is aiming at maintaining and developing these fruitful contacts and to promote new ones with other prestigious institutions of research at academic level whose scopes are similar and bordering its purposes.

About Us

"Grigore Gafencu" Research Center for the the History of International Relations and Cultural Studies, although young, is in terms of staff members and young researchers one of the best represented such research center in the Valahia University of Targoviste. The purpose of the center is to pay a quality tribute to the memory and activity of the prestigious Romanian diplomat and analyst Grigore Gafencu (1892-1957). A former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania (1938-1940) and his country`s envoy to Soviet Union in the fateful years of 1940-1941, Gafencu has moved to Switzerland since 1941. In exile, Gafencu wrote one of the earliest books approaching the causes of the World War II (Preliminaires de la Guerre a l'est. De l'accord de Moscou (23 Aout 1939) aux hostilites en Russie (22 Juin 1941), Egloff, Friburg, 1944), providing an exceptional insight on those troubling European events. The conclusion Gafencu drew from the developments leading to World War II has played their part in making him an active supporter of the ideas of European unity.

News and Events

Apel de contributii:

Curente, institutii si personalitati ale vietii politice si diplomatice. Studii în onoarea Profesorului Gheorghe Sbârna

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Sedinta Centrului Gafencu

Luni, 19.12.2011, orele 12, in sala de conferinte a Centrului Gafencu, corp E, parter.
La sedinta vor lua parte numai titularii universitatii.
Pe ordinea de zi se gasesc urmatoarele puncte:
1. analiza activitatii desfasurate in anul 2011;
2. planul de activitate pe anul 2012;
3. transmiterea CV-urilor actualizate pentru reinnoirea paginii de web a Centrului.
4. diverse.

5 octombrie 2011

Dr. Siviu Miloiu si colegii sai din echipa Centrului Gafencu au obtinut finantare de UEFISCDI, prin programul Idei, pentru grantul intitulat Utopia versus realism in Romania's foreign policy. From World War I to 1975. Acesta se va derula incepand din octombrie 2011 pana in septembrie 2014.

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