VÁCLAV HAVEL EUROPEAN DIALOGUES 2021 - THE OTHER EUROPE On-line conference 11 - 12 May 2021

Michael Žantovský is a diplomat, politician, writer, and translator. He studied psychology at Charles University in Prague and McGill University in Montreal, Canada and worked as a  research psychologist. In November 1989 he was a  founding member of the Civic Forum, an umbrella organization that coordinated the overthrow of the Communist regime, and became its press spokesman. In January 1990 he became the Spokesman and Press Secretary for President Václav Havel. In July 1992 he was appointed Ambassador to the United States. In 1996 he was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and served as the chairman of its Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security. He was a leader of the parliamentary political party ODA in 1997 and again in 2001-2002. He was the party’s deputy leader in 1998-2001. He served as the Czech Ambassador to Israel from 2003 till 2009. From 2009 till August 2015, he was the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Court of St. James’s. He is a recipient, along with the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright of the 2016 Czech and Slovak Transatlantic Award for his role in building political, economic and security ties between the United States and countries of Central and Eastern Europe. He is a regular contributor to World Affairs Journal and Aspen Review Central Europe. He served as the President or Vice President of Aspen Institute Prague in years 2012 to 2018, elected it´s honorary President in 2019 (since today). In September, 2015 Žantovsky became Executive Director of the Václav Havel Library in Prague.