On October 3, 2024 Ivona Lađevac, Principal Investigator, and Pavle Nedić, project team member, presented the COMPASS Project to two delegations from Chinese Universities, Shandong and Hohai, within the educational program “X-Cultural Leadership and Cultivation of Internationalized High-End Management Talents” organized by the Faculty of Organizational Sciences. The members of the delegations had the opportunity to hear about projects goals, activities, and outputs.

The COMPASS project team has developed the COMPASS Project Methodology and the COMPASS Databset Codebook, which are available on the project’s website.

The COMPASS Project Methodology provides an overview of the methodological techniques used within the project’s research activities. It explains in detail the risk assessment methodology and the process of creating risk matrices for the analysis of the contingencies.

The COMPASS Database Codebook provides a detailed overview of how the database is formed and functions, as well as the meanings and types of variables used.

Both documents are available at the link.

As one of the activities within the COMPASS Project, the Online Survey on stances regarding Serbia’s foreign policy has been launched.

The aim of the survey is to gather public opinion on major goals, trajectories, partners in foreign policy of Serbia, particularly those relating to Serbia’s relation with the EU and China. The survey has 20 questions and the results will be used in further research by the project team members.

The survey is available at the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc-t–uxckYN77kUybipSdVODVtWhvy9T_LohnpFGh4QLkwSA/viewform

COMPASS PI Dr. Ivona Lađevac and project team member Prof. Branislav Đorđević visited Beijing from 23 to 29 June and the leading academic institutions of the People’s Republic of China. Dr. Lađevac presented the project “Contribution to modern partnerships: assessment of Serbia’s relations with the EU and China” (COMPASS), which is financed by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia within the “Prism” program and gave a lecture on the bilateral foundations of Serbia and China in the period 1955-2024 at the Institute of World History of the Chinese Academy of Historical Sciences.

During the visit to the Institute of World History, Prof.  Branislav Đorđević and Dr. Liu Zuokui, director of the Institute of World History, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, after which Prof. Đorđević presented Dr. Liu with the Great Plaquette, the highest award of the IIPE, for his continuous contribution to the work of the Institute.

Professor Đorđević and Dr. Lađevac discussed future cooperation, as well as current issues of international relations, in separate meetings with H.E. Chen Bo, Director of the China Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Zhao Jimin, Secretary General of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Dr. Feng Zhongping, Director of the Institute of European Studies, Dr. Li Yongquan, Director of the Eurasian Social Development Institute of the State Council Development Center Republic of China and the Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia in Beijing, H.E. Maja Stefanović.

During stay in Beijing, Dr. Lađevac gave an interview to China Radio International, on the occasion of marking 70 years of the five principles of Chinese foreign policy.

Within the Round Table held at the Institute of International Politics and Economics, the first comprehensive Report of the COMPASS project (Contributing to Modern Partnerships: Assessments of Sino-EU-Serbian Relations) was presented. The Round Table was moderated by Dr. Ivona Lađevac, the PI of the COMPASS project, and the Report was presented by Dr. Katarina Zakić.

Following the presentation of the Report, Dr. Nenad Stekić introduced the architecture and variables of the “COMPASS Dataset”, which will be made available to the public as another result of the project.

In addition to researchers from the Institute and members of the project team, representatives from the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, the Ministry for European Integration of the Republic of Serbia, the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, the National Council for Coordination of Cooperation with the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, and the non-governmental sector attended the presentation of the report.

Within the scope of activities of the COMPASS project, training on the use of large datasets in the social sciences was held. The training was conducted by Prof. Dr. Mirjana Misita, Full Professor at the Faculty of techanical Engineering, University of Belgrade, and was attended by research assistant and research associates of the Institute of International Politics and Economics.

The goal of the training is to empower young researchers with the skills to understand the nature of databases, and to input and analyse large datasets for scientific research purposes. One of the most important outputs of the COMPASS project will be the creation of a database with contingencies that describe the relationships of the Republic of Serbia with the European Union and the People’s Republic of China.

IIPE’s research fellows, Dr. Katarina Zakić and Dr. Nenad Stekić, participated in the 18 the International Scientific Conference – Łódź East Asia Meeting: “International Relations and the Role of State and Non-State Actors in Asia”. Dr. Zakić presented a paper on the topic “The Future of the Sino-Serbian Free Trade Agreement: Possibilities and Challenges”. Dr. Stekić presented a paper titled “Taiwan in Chinese Contemporary Security Policy: Cross-Strait Tensions as a Global Security Locus”.

The conference was jointly organized by the Department of Asian Studies and the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Łódź (Poland). In total 55 authors from seven countries participated in the conference.

The presented papers represent the initial findings of the COMPASS scientific project.

The COMPASS Project team convened for its third bi-monthly meeting on June 11, 2024. Key discussions centered around the first comprehensive report detailing Serbia’s relations with the EU and China, focusing on political, security, and economic dimensions, as well as the procurement of essential project equipment. Upcoming project activities will feature organizing a Round Table with stakeholders, conducting a Delphi session, and administering a public survey.

The official website of the project “Contributing to Modern Partnerships: Assessments of Sino-EU-Serbian Relations” (COMPASS) has been activated. The website, which offers access to all the information about the project, the project research outputs and the database of contingencies is available at the following link: https://serbiacompass.com/

Dr. Katarina Zakić’s guest appearance in the show “Serbia is the first European country to raise cooperation with China to this level: Euronews Center on Xi Jinping’s visit” on the Euronews Serbia channel, 8 May 2024, during which the COMPASS project was presented, you can watch it in the abbreviated clip attached. Also, you can read the statement of Dr. Katarina Zakić for Biznis magazine number 32, edition for May 2024, related to the visit of President Xi to Serbia, and within which the COMPASS project was presented.

Research Fellow of the Institute of International Politics and Economic and COMPASS team member Dr. Aleksandar Mitić mentioned the project in his author’s commentary „Cooperation with China raised to the highest level in Europe”, published in the June edition of the magazine „CorD”. Dr. Mitić also talked about the project during the show “Ino-strane” (“Foreign Pages”), under the title “Kina i globalni izazovi” (“China and Global Challenges”) on Radio-Television Vojvodina 1, June 25, 2024. You can watch his talk at the link: https://youtu.be/IEHQxVgboCY?feature=shared&t=149