Please join the Fletcher Eurasia Club for a lunch seminar with Valbona Zeneli, an expert on transatlantic relations, strategic competition, NATO, globalization and international economy, EU enlargement, and the Western Balkans. She will discuss the geopolitical dynamics of the Western Balkans. The conversation will touch on various regional security and economic issues, the influence of Russia and China in the region, and the roles of the EU and NATO in the region.

We encourage you to read in advance the following articles on the economic relationship between the Western Balkans and the EU, the growing presence of Russia and China in the Western Balkans, the security situation in the region, rising tensions in Kosovo, and the strategic importance of the Western Balkans to the EU. The Eurasia Club weekly lunch seminar series engages with students, faculty, staff, and researchers to foster a better understanding of the region among members of the Fletcher community. Members of the wider Tufts community are also welcome to attend. Lunch will be served.

Valbona Zeneli is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council with a dual affiliation at the Europe Center and the Transatlantic Security Initiative of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She is also a Visiting Scholar for 2023-2024 at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. She worked for the U.S. government for twelve years from 2011-2023, serving as a professor of national security studies and chair of strategic engagements at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies of the U.S. Department of Defense, where she continues her affiliation as a visiting adjunct professor. Zeneli is also a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Zeneli received her Ph.D. in political economy from the University of Bari and a BS with honors in business administration from the University of Bologna, Italy. She also completed graduate studies in international marketing as a fellow in the Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University and the Executive Education for Senior Executives in National and International Security at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Zeneli is the 2023 winner of the Inspiration Award for Women. She speaks English, Italian, German, and some Spanish.