In Conversation with Bogdan Klich

A conversation with Bogdan Klich, Head of Mission, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in the U.S., about his career in politics, public service and public diplomacy in the U.S. The discussion will be hosted and moderated by Dole Institute Visiting Fellow and former diplomat Qëndrim Gashi.

This event is presented in partnership with the KU International Affairs, the KU Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and the KU Department of Slavic, German, and Eurasian Studies

Bogdan Klich is the Head of Mission in the Embassy of the Republic of Poland as of 18th 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 Defence from 2007 to 2011 and was a member of the European Parliament. Mr. Bogdan 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 a visiting research professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, and is an affiliate at the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication at The George Washington University, where he hosts a monthly discussion series on public diplomacy. Gashi was previously Kosovo’s Ambassador to France from 2016 to 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.