Today’s podcast guest is Lulzim Peci, principal founder and Executive Director of the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED), and a member of the Board of the Council of Kosovo Ambassadors.
In this episode, we discuss political instability in Kosovo, particularly as the country is set to return to the polls for the third time in less than 18 months. We discuss what led to the series of elections and what we may be able to expect out of this upcoming election, as well as how this impacts Kosovo’s ongoing efforts toward EU candidacy.
Listen now; link in bio.
Full bio
Mr. Lulzim Peci holds a PhD in Political Science from the South East European University in North Macedonia, an M.A. in International Relations from the University Institute Ortega y Gasset in Spain, and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Prishtina in Kosovo. He is the principal founder and Executive Director of the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED), and a member of the Board of the Council of Kosovo Ambassadors (CKA).
In the past, Mr. Peci served as Ambassador of Kosovo in Stockholm (2009-2013). He also was Chair of the Board of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (2019 – 2023), Member of the Board of the Kosovo American Education Fund (2021 – 2023), Member of the Board of the American University in Kosovo (2007 – 2009), Executive Director of the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (1999 – 2003), and as a Researcher at the Kosovo Center for International Studies (KCIS)/Foreign Policy Team of the late Kosovo’s President, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova (1995-1998). Mr. Peci’s research interests primarily focus on foreign and security policies, inter-ethnic relations, and political parties.
When governments criminalize protest, undermine expertise, and weaken democratic institutions, climate action becomes harder and climate disasters become deadlier. Those paying the highest price are often the most vulnerable communities already facing war, poverty, displacement, and environmental collapse.
In my latest podcast episode with humanitarian Jane Olson, we delved into the question of what is behind the horrific rise in human rights abuses. Jane notes that leadership is the answer, which is sadly moving us in the wrong direction.
Listen to this and more from our full episode, available at the link in my bio as well as all major podcasting platforms.
#HumanRights #Leadership
The Justice Department under Trump has become an extension of his personal and political whims, not an independent arbiter of law. It serves as an instrument for targeting his perceived enemies while shielding allies from accountability, including by dropping sensitive corruption and white collar investigations. Everybody must remember that where there is no justice, tyranny reigns.
At the core of the Israel-Palestinian conflict is not only about land or security; it is about competing claims to justice. One philosophical truth stands out: a nation cannot secure its future by indefinitely denying other people their fundamental rights. Power can suppress, contain, and even dominate—but it cannot extinguish a people’s collective aspiration for freedom and self-determination. However bitter or tragic the circumstances, reality imposes its own logic. Two people inhabit the same land, neither of whom can eliminate the other. No amount of violence, however devastating, can alter this fundamental fact. Historical suffering, however profound, does not confer moral license to perpetuate the suffering of others. The Jewish historical experience, culminating in the horrors of the Holocaust, demands security and recognition—but it cannot justify policies that deny another people their dignity and national existence. alonben-meir.com/writing/history-will-not-yield-to-power/
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Over the past three decades, I have written hundreds of articles and several books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, examining it from historical, religious, psychological, and geostrategic perspectives, as well as through the hard realities on the ground. After all this, one conclusion has remained inescapable: there will be no peace—none—unless it is anchored in a viable two-state solution. Nearly six decades after the 1967 war, the conflict is not moving toward resolution but toward permanent rupture. What began as a national and territorial struggle has hardened into a zero-sum confrontation shaped by fear, trauma, and mutually exclusive narratives. Cycles of violence have become structural: Palestinian attacks, Israeli reprisals, the first and second Intifadas, repeated wars in Gaza, and persistent unrest in the West Bank. Each cycle has deepened mistrust and narrowed the already vanishing space for compromise.
alonben-meir.com/writing/history-will-not-yield-to-power/
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Not going to happen in the near future
Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation as director of U.S. intelligence is not a day too early. She has been one of the most incompetent leaders of the intelligence community, which spans 19 agencies, and her performance since her appointment has been dismal at best. Instead of exercising independent judgment, she served as a loyal Trump stooge, following his dictates while neglecting core responsibilities, overseeing complex global threats. She compromised the effectiveness of America’s vast intelligence apparatus, a direct consequence of Trump’s habit of appointing unqualified loyalists to critically important posts. Her departure is welcome. The question now is whether Trump has the minimal wisdom to appoint someone who actually understands the vital work of U.S. intelligence—or whether he will simply install yet another stooge to run this massive intelligence community.
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Trump lurches from one threat against Iran to the next, changing his mind almost daily and contradicting his own pronouncements. He boasts of a “great deal” one day, only to deny it the next, while confusion over whether the Strait of Hormuz is open or partially shut fuels speculation over who will control and profit from vital shipping lanes. This is not a strategy; it is chaos dressed up as strength. Trump plunged the United States into a war with Iran without coherent objectives, without a credible exit strategy, and without serious consideration of Iran’s capabilities or likely response. He repeatedly declares victory, then resumes his menacing rhetoric, proving he has no idea where this war is heading or how to end it. What we are witnessing is not leadership but impulsive, dangerous improvisation on a global stage.
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