In Conversation with Ambassador Bogdan Klich

The Republic of Poland’s Head of Mission to the United States, Bogdan Klich, will be in conversation with Dole Fellow and former Kosovar diplomat Qëndrim Gashi on Poland’s experience in public diplomacy with the United States and examine key aspects of U.S.-Polish bilateral cooperation. Their discussion will also offer perspectives on current U.S. foreign policy and Poland’s priorities.

H.E. Bogdan Klich is the Head of Mission in the Embassy of the Republic of Poland as of November 2024. He has been Senator in the Polish Parliament between 2011 and 2024. Between 2015 and 2019, he was Minority Leader of the Polish Senate. Mr. Bogdan Klich served as Poland’s Minister of Defense from 2007 to 2011 and was a member of the European Parliament. Klich managed the Information Department at State TV Centre in Cracow between 1990 and 1992. He then was Head of the International Centre for Development of Democracy in Krakow from 1993 to 1999 and Head of the Institute for Strategic Studies from 1999 to 2003. In 1998 and 1999, he was an Adviser to the government plenipotentiary for Poland’s accession negotiations with the EU. Mr. Klich graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Krakow Medical Academy and the Faculty of Philosophy and History at the Jagiellonian University. He was a lecturer at the Institute of European Studies at the Jagiellonian University. Mr. Klich has authored numerous publications on foreign policy and international security. In the late 1970’s and 1980’s he was active in the democratic opposition movement.

Dr. Qëndrim Gashi is an associate professor at the University of Prishtina and was Kosovo’s Ambassador to France from 2016 until 2021. He has served in supervisory boards of various private and state institutions and think tanks and has won a number of scholarships, awards and honors, including receiving the insignia of Commander of the French Legion of Honor in 2022. Educated at the University of Chicago (PhD 2008), the University of Cambridge (MA St 2003), and the University of Prishtina (Diploma 2002), he has given talks at many universities, was the founder and first President (2008-2012) of the Kosovar Mathematical Society, and since April 2022 also serves as the Kosovo American Education Fund Development Manager.