On 10 September, the principal investigator of the University of Ljubljana’s team Dr Rok Zupančič and Faris Kočan presented the project RePAST at the 13th Bled Strategic Forum – the leading international conference in Central and South-Eastern Europe that brings together a diverse set of participants, including heads of state and government, ministers, diplomats, business people, scholars and experts all around the world. Under the title ‘Bridging the Divide’, this year’s edition of the Bled Strategic forum is dedicated to overcoming the traditional perceptions and searching for things that we have in common, thus ensuring a prosperous and sustainable future for everyone.

RePAST was presented in the panel entitled ‘Conflict Prevention, Peace Building and Mediation’. The basic idea behind the panel was the ever-changing nature of conflicts and tackling newly emerging problems with new perspectives. The panel tried to find the ways to prevent conflicts, build peace and use mediation, by focusing on contemporary cases in the Balkans and the Middle East – from the political, cultural and social aspects. Around 100 people with different background (inter alia the Slovenian Minister for culture Anton Peršak) actively participated in the discussion and raised relevant questions regarding the politics of memory in the European countries. Furthermore, the Ambassador of Ireland to Slovenia Myles Geiran paid closed attention to the presentation of the project and expressed his interest in the final results.