Circle U. Summer School on Democracy and Development returns to Belgrade

The University of Belgrade hosted the second consecutive international summer school for Master's students from the Circle U. alliance universities. The school took place from June 1st to 5th, 2026, in Belgrade, as part of the Circle U. Democracy Knowledge Hub, in cooperation with the University of Oslo and other alliance partners.

The summer school, titled "Democracy and Development in a Fragmenting World: Geopolitics, Power Shifts, and the Fate of the Liberal Order", gathered around forty student participants from Germany, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Austria, the UK and Serbia. The programme also included three online preparatory sessions held on April 23–24 and May 11, 2026, which introduced students to key frameworks and exercises before the in-person week.

This year's edition took on heightened urgency. Against a backdrop of growing uncertainty around NATO cohesion, shifting trade policies, democratic backsliding, and multipolar rivalries, the course challenged students to move beyond technocratic framings of poverty and development and engage with the deeper geopolitical forces reshaping the international order. The guiding question throughout the week: how can poverty reduction and democratic governance be sustained when the foundations of the liberal international order can no longer be taken for granted?

Lecturers from Circle U. alliance member universities and partner institutions introduced participants to key theoretical and empirical approaches through a series of lectures and interactive discussions, including:

• Who Gets What and Who Decides? Democracy, Redistribution, and the Politics of Poverty (Prof. Dan Banik, University of Oslo)
• From Global Convergence to Multipolar Conflict (Prof. Branko Milanović, City University of New York)
• Shifting Boundaries in Political Discourse: A Linguistic View on the Global Transformation (Prof. Barbara de Cock, UCLouvain)
• Scalar Politics of the Populist Radical Right (Dr. Valentin Domann, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
• Human Rights from Cold War to Multipolar World: Universal Values or Geopolitical Tools? (Prof. Sophie Coeuré, Université Paris Cité)
• Shifting Center of Gravity: From the Western-Liberal Order to Multipolar Realities in the Global Political Economy (Prof. Lars V. Johannsen, Aarhus University)
• Geopolitical Europe (Prof. Filip Ejdus, University of Belgrade)
• Tariffs as Weapons: Trade Wars and the Unravelling of the Liberal Economic Order (Ass. Prof. Veljko Mijušković, University of Belgrade)
• The Connection between Democratic Resilience, Development and Modernisation (Prof. Claudia Matthes, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
• Global Governance in a Fragmenting World: Democracy, Development, and the Future of Multilateralism (Prof. Dan Banik, University of Oslo)

A highlight of the programme was the Matrix Serious Game — "Invasion of Greenland and Race for the Arctic" — facilitated by Prof. Nemanja Džuverović and Milan Varda (University of Belgrade). Spanning the entire first afternoon of the in-person week, the simulation immersed students in a geopolitical scenario drawn directly from current events, prompting them to think strategically about the interests, pressures, and decisions facing states in a destabilised world order. The exercise built on a tradition of using serious games as a pedagogical tool for policy analysis and strategic foresight that has become a distinctive feature of the Belgrade summer school.

A special focus was placed on student group work. Over four days, students worked in interdisciplinary teams to prepare presentations drawing on the lectures and readings, as well as their own research questions. Many participants found the cross-university collaboration to be among the most formative aspects of the experience.

During their stay in Belgrade, participants also had the opportunity to explore the city through an organised walking tour and a guided visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art.

This interdisciplinary course is offered as part of the Circle U. alliance, enabling students to gain perspectives from experts across Europe on some of the most pressing issues in democratic and development studies. It represents an ongoing fruit of cooperation within the Circle U. Knowledge Hub on Democracy, through which member universities collaborate on co-creating modules and study programmes that are genuinely European in scope and ambition.