International Forum for Democratic Studies Research Council Member

Jiri Pehe

New York University in Prague

Jiří Pehe is director of New York University’s center in Prague. He was director of the Political Department for former Czech President Vaclav Havel from September 1997 to May 1999.

From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Pehe served as the director of the Analysis and Research Department at the Open Media Research Institute in Prague. He has also worked as an analyst of Central European affairs and later, as director of Central European Research at the Research Institute of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich, Germany. From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Pehe was director of East European Studies at Freedom House in New York.

Mr. Pehe has written hundreds of articles and analytical studies on developments in Eastern Europe for American, English, and German periodicals and academic journals. He is a regular contributor to various English newspapers and regularly comments on political developments for Czech television and radio. He co-authored and edited a book titled The Prague Spring: A Mixed Legacy, which was published by Freedom House in 1988.

Mr. Pehe received a doctorate in law (JUDr.) from the Charles University School of Law in 1980. He fled Czechoslovakia in 1981 and eventually settled in the United States. In 1985, he graduated from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York.

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