A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Mladen Mrdalj

Mladen Mrdalj is a PhD candidate who focuses on research and teaching in Comparative Politics, International Relations and Research Methods. His dissertation investigates significance of external factors in the dynamics of domestic political violence in the Yugoslav civil wars. Mladen’s thesis will analyze inter-connected case studies chosen from the context of the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. The central focus of Mladen’s dissertation is how perceptions of the international system influenced domestic elites’ strategic use of violence. The dissertation will also attempt to deal with more theoretical questions, such as: how domestic actors differentiate between the official and actual positions of international actors, how are they trying to manipulate international actors, and what can we learn about conflict management by answering these questions.

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In the fall of 2012, Mladen received support from the Humanities Center at Northeastern University to set up a research group to expand upon the study of the international sources of domestic political conflict and violence. Other topics of his academic interests are: civil-military relations, international security, the ideology of Yugoslavism, Balkan politics and trilateral relations between the US, EU and Russia.

Since 2010, Mladen has been actively involved in designing and leading the Dialogue of Civilizations program which introduces Northeastern students to the Western Balkans. In this Balkans Dialogue, students visit important institutions, sites, politicians and activists in the former Yugoslavia, and learn firsthand about ethno-nationalism, post-conflict reconstruction and EU accession. In addition to these activities, Mladen lectures on various aspects of conflict and politics in the post-Yugoslav space.

Mladen earned his LLB and MA in Security Studies from the University of Belgrade, Serbia. He is an alumnus of The Fund for American Studies and Georgetown University’s summer programs in Prague as well as in Washington D.C., where he also interned at the Institute of World Politics. He served in the Serbian Armed Forces’ Guard Brigade. In his spare time Mladen is passionate about his hobbies: genealogy, eating ice cream, basketball and literature. A New England aficionado, Mladen has embraced the charms of Nantucket, apple crisp and resenting New Yorkers.

Source: Northeastern University


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People Directory

Dragoslav D. Šiljak

Dragoslav D. Šiljak (born 1933 in Belgrade, Serbia) is a professor of Electrical Engineering at Santa Clara University, where he holds the title of Benjamin and Mae Swig University Professor. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1963 from the University of Belgrade.

He is the author of the book 'Decentralized Control of Complex Systems', Academic Press (1991).

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Publishing

The Church at Prayer

by Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra

Publisher’s note

Many readers of the addresses of Elder Aimilianos, which have been published in the five-volume series, rchimandrite Aimilianos, Spiritual Instructions and Discourses (Ormylia, 1998-2003), have frequently expressed the wish for an abridged and more accessible form of his teaching. In response, we are happy to inaugurate a new series of publications incorporating key texts from the above-mentioned collection. Other considerations have also contributed o this new project, such as the selection of specific texts which address important, contemporary questions; the need for a smaller, more reader-friendly publication format; and the necessity for editing certain passages in need of clarification, without however altering their basic meaning.

Above all, the works collected in this volume reflect the importance which the Elder consistently attached to prayer, spirituality, community life, worship, and liturgy. Thus the experientially based works "On Prayer", and "The Prayer of the Holy Mountain", which deal primarily with the Prayer of the Heart, appear first, followed by the summary addresses on "The Divine Liturgy", and "Our Church Attendance". These are in turn followed by the more socially oriented discourses on "Our Relations with Our Neighbor", and "Marriage: The Great Sacrament". Finally, the present volume closes with the sermons on "Spiritual Reading" and "The Spiritual Life", which in a simple and yet compelling manner set forth the conditions for "ascending to heaven on the wings of the Spirit".

It is our hope that The Church at Prayer will meet the purpose for which it is issued and will serve as a ready aid and support for those who desire God and eternal life in Him.