Eugeniusz Smolar

is a member of New Eastern Europe’s editorial board. His study of economy at Warsaw University was interrupted by imprisonment as a result of participation in student demonstrations in March 1968 and protests against the Warsaw Pact armies’ invasion of Czechoslovakia in August of that year. Following his release from jail, he immigrated to Sweden in 1970 and studied at the Uppsala University. In 1975 he joined the Polish Section of the BBC World Service and in 1982 he became its deputy director, and later on director (1988-1997). He was a co-founder of the émigré political quarterly Aneks (1973-1990) and the Aneks Publishing House. Following his return to Poland in 1997, he became a member of the Management Board of Polskie Radio S.A. (Polish Radio) responsible for programming (1998-2002), and later became its programme director. In October 2005, he became president of the Center for International Relations where he now works as a senior fellow and member of the board. He has been involved in the Polish-Czech, Polish-German, Polish-Russian and Polish-Ukrainian dialogue.