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PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER COKER (MARCH 28th, 1953 - SEPTEMBER 5th, 2023)
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Christopher Coker, co-director of LSE IDEAS, who supported the foundation of the LSE IDEAS Ratiu Forum.
Nicolae Ratiu, Chairman of the Ratiu Foundations:
“Christopher was a most incredible professor, intellectual, human being and inspiration to all who have known him. Over the past almost 5 years working together under his guidance and brilliance our Ratiu Forum/LSE IDEAS association has succeeded in developing into a significant and admired hub on the CEE map of rare thoughtful debate and of relevant regional programmes of which we can all be proud. Recently Christopher had written to myself and others of how much he had valued and enjoyed our working together and how important it had been for him. This is praise indeed. We must and shall carry on and perpetuate his legacy, building on what he has shown us to be possible. Under the circumstances it is the most important thing we can do to show our admiration and respect for him and to register our eternal appreciation for the example he gave us. This is indeed his own immortality.”
Christopher Coker was Director of LSE IDEAS, LSE’s foreign policy think tank.
His publications include Rebooting Clausewitz (Hurst, 2015), Men at War: what fiction has to tell us about conflict from the Iliad to Catch 22 (Hurst, 2014); The Improbable War: China, the US and the logic of Great Power War (Hurst, 2015); Future War (Polity, 2016), and The Rise of the Civilizational State (Polity, 2019). His most recent book is Why War? (2020).
He was Professor of International Relations at LSE, retiring in 2019. He was a former twice serving member of the Council of the Royal United Services Institute, a former NATO Fellow and a regular lecturer at Defence Colleges in the UK, the US. Rome, Singapore, and Tokyo. He had also been a Visiting Fellow at the National Institute for Defence Studies In Tokyo, the Rajaratnam School for International Studies Singapore, the Political Science Dept in Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok and the Norwegian and Swedish Defence Colleges.
Memories and messages can be shared here.
The Times obituary is available here.
THE ION RAȚIU JOURNALISM AWARD – 2023
The Rațiu Family Charitable Foundation, the Rațiu Democracy Centre and the Rațiu Forum are pleased to announce the 2023 recipient of the Ion Rațiu Journalism Award: journalist Andreea Pavel, co-founder of Info Sud-Est.
Andreea Pavel was selected for her prolific journalistic activity in the local media (Constanța), which includes among others investigation series on corruption, articles regarding social problems and cultural heritage, and also for her commitment to recruiting and training young journalists.
Among the other investigations carried out by the 2023 winner, the nomination committee has considered her investigation series regarding the European funds accessed for the Danube Delta through the Integrated Territorial Investment mechanism. These articles were followed by a European Public Prosecutor’s Office investigation into the fraud in 2022.
HISTORY PRIZE
We are pleased to announce that Casian Gămănuț, PhD researcher in History at the University “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” of Iași, Romania, is the recipient of the 2022 Ratiu Forum History Prize.
More details about the Award can be read here.
THE ION RAȚIU JOURNALISM AWARD – 2022
The Rațiu Family Charitable Foundation, the Rațiu Democracy Centre and the Rațiu Forum are pleased to announce the 2022 Recipient of the Ion Rațiu Journalism Award: journalist Cristian Andrei, Senior Editor at Europa Liberă.
In 2019 he started a series of investigative articles regarding the funding mechanisms of Romanian media outlets, fuelled by the budget of the largest parties in Romania. The series continued in 2021 and 2022 and it includes – among others – the following investigative articles: Bani de la partid pentru televiziuni și presă. PSD a cheltuit în șase luni de 33 de ori mai mult decât USR PLUS (Money from the party for TV stations and media: PSD spent in six months 33 times more than USR PLUS); Cadoul de 90 de milioane de lei făcut de Cîțu partidelor. Modelul german de finanțare și modelul PNL – PSD (The 90 million Lei gift from Cîțu to the parties. The German funding model and the PNL-PSD one); Investitorii ascunși din presă. PSD ține informațiile la secret, deși plătește milioane pe lună (The hidden media investors. PSD withholds information, despite paying millions every month).
THE RATIU FORUM
ANNUAL REVIEW 2021
ION RAȚIU JOURNALISM AWARD – 2021
The Rațiu Family Charitable Foundation, the Rațiu Democracy Centre and the Rațiu Forum are pleased to announce the 2021 Recipient of the Ion Rațiu Journalism Award: journalist VICTOR ILIE, who currently reports for Recorder.
In November 2020 Victor Ilie published the investigation that discovered and brought to the public’s attention the “King of the pandemic”, the main person responsible for purchasing vital medical equipment for the Romanian state and its citizens, a master of a “kingdom” dominated by corruption, defiance and incompetence. According to the members of the Jury Committee that evaluated this year’s proposals, the article written by Victor Ilie is an example of quality journalism produced by an independent press project, an investigation carried out at a time when the access to information was often limited for journalists.
Photo credits: Andrei Pungovschi
ION RAȚIU JOURNALISM AWARD – ANNOUNCING THE 2020 WINNER
The Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation, the Ratiu Democracy Centre and the Ratiu Forum are pleased to announce the 2020 Recipient of the Ion Ratiu Journalism Award.
DIANA ONCIOIU, reporter at the alternative publication Dela0 and also a member of the Să Fie Lumină team, has been nominated for her investigation regarding the trialing of sexual abuses against minors by Romanian courts.
Diana Oncioiu sheds a light on a painful reality in Romanian courts: the manner in which sexual abuses against minor victims are trialed and the tendency of judges to assume that sexual relations took place also with the acceptance of the child-victim. This is possible in a system that assigns blame to the victim, despite the condemnation of the Romanian State by the European Court for Human Rights, which concluded that the Romanian criminal-law system had failed to legally protect children against degrading treatment and to pursue the best interests of minors in the administration of justice. The investigation can be read here.
The Awardee writes for the alternative publication Dela0 and is also a member of the Să Fie Lumină collaborative project, initiated by Dela0.ro and the Center for Media Investigations. She also has a background in broadcasting, having worked for five years for Realitatea TV and Digi24. She covers mainly social topics – domestic violence, education, social assistance, extreme poverty. Diana Oncioiu will officially receive the Award at a ceremony during the 2020 Ratiu Dialogues on Democracy, an event that will occur online this year between September 15th-18th.
More details about the event are available here.
Established in 2015, the Ion Ratiu Journalism Award is inspired by the example of Ion Ratiu who, upon his return to Romania after 50 years in exile, fought for freedom of the press, a necessary condition of any functional democracy. The Award promotes and encourages investigative journalism in Romania by rewarding the most important achievements of Romanian journalists. The nominations of investigative journalists are made by the Center for Independent Journalism, the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism, Active Watch, and by representatives of Romanian journalism faculties and departments.
More details about the Award can be read here.
Former Awardees
2019 Alex Nedea, journalist at Recorder.ro
2018 Paul Radu, co-founder of RISE Project
2017 Ovidiu Vanghele, journalist at Să Fie Lumină
2016 Emilia Șercan, journalist at Pressone.ro
2015 Cătălin Tolontan, chief-editor of Libertatea
“The brave, highly detailed and well-researched investigation into the Romanian Courts’ handling of sexual abuse cases amongst minors impressed the jury and convinced us that Diana Oncioiu well deserves the Award for this and indeed for other subjects she has investigated. We believe very strongly that investigative journalism must be supported and encouraged by those in a position to fill the gap left by mass media. The quality also has necessarily to be excellent to be picked up more widely and she has certainly achieved this. To this end, we have and continue to organize workshops for Romanian journalists, involving both Romanian and international experts”, states Nicolae Ratiu, Chairman of the Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation.
