In this Monterey Conversation, two leading scholars of the Soviet and post-Soviet space programs, Michael Gordin and Asif Siddiqi, addressed the effects of the USSR’s disintegration on the Soviet space program; the ways in which this program was handled by the Russian Federation in the 1990s; and the place of the Russian space program in cooperation and competition with the United States. The Monterey Conversation participants also discussed the current status of the Russian space program. This ...
Jun 12, 2023•1 hr 15 min
The arrest of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, in Russia, in March 2023, has shone a light on the challenges of international reporting on Russia. In this Monterey conversation, two distinguished journalists, Valerie Hopkins (The New York Times) and Andrew Roth (The Guardian) addressed the task of reporting on Russia when it was very difficult for Western journalists to work there. Valerie Hopkins and Andrew Roth discussed such issues as access to information and described the k...
May 08, 2023•1 hr 12 min
In this Monterey Conversation, two distinguished scholars of Soviet history, Karl Schlögel (Frankfurt an der Oder emeritus) and Yuri Slezkine (UC Berkeley), reviewed the long sweep of Soviet history, from 1917 to 1991. They addressed a multiplicity of questions. What are the best ways to frame Soviet history? Should it be written as the history of ideology, of high politics, of ideas, of foreign policy, of everyday life? And how linear is Soviet history? Was the end apparent in the beginning? Or...
Apr 27, 2023•1 hr 27 min
This Monterey Conversation is with one of the world’s leading arms control experts, Rose Gottemoeller , who has served as Deputy Secretary General of NATO and as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security at the U.S. Department of State. In conversation with Hanna Notte , Rose Gottemoeller reflected on her experience in negotiating arms control agreements between Russia and the United States, discussed the current impasse over the New START Treaty and other arms control...
Apr 19, 2023•1 hr 13 min
This Monterey Conversation is with Ambassador John Sullivan, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2020 to 2022. In conversation with Hanna Notte and Michael Kimmage, Ambassador Sullivan drew on his diplomatic experience to address the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the course of the war and the overall drift of U.S.-Russian relations. He offered his thoughts on the kind of diplomatic contact that still exists between Russia and the United States and how it could be put to pract...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 11 min
The Ambassadorial Series is a collection of interviews with nine former U.S. ambassadors to Russia and the Soviet Union, presented in video, podcast, and PDF format, for use by scholars and students of international relations. A new segment, the interview with Ambassador John Sullivan by Jill Dougherty has been recorded in January 2023 and added to the Ambassadorial Series. In his interview for the Ambassadorial Series John Sullivan, US Ambassador to Russia for both the Trump and Biden administr...
Feb 16, 2023•1 hr 18 min
The present often modifies the past. For a few areas of historical inquiry, this is as true as for the history of the Cold War. In this Monterey Conversation, moderated by Jeremi Suri (University of Texas at Austin), Mary Sarotte (Johns Hopkins SAIS) and Serhii Plokhii (Harvard University) talked through the connection between the Cold War and the war in Ukraine, focusing on the history of Ukraine and the history of U.S.-Russian/U.S.-Soviet relations. They discussed the ways in which this confli...
Dec 15, 2022•1 hr 17 min
In this Monterey Conversation, Ali Wyne (Eurasia Group), who is the author of a recent book, America's Great-Power Opportunity, and Kori Schake (American Enterprise Institute) contrasted great-power opportunities to the prospect of great-power competition and related these theoretical debates to the triad of the United States, Russia and China. What is a great power? Where among the great powers do the opportunities lie? And where do the dangers lie? This Monterey Conversation is moderated by Mi...
Dec 02, 2022•1 hr 13 min
News coverage has been a crucial element of every modern war. In this Monterey Conversation, two distinguished journalists - CNN’s Clarissa Ward and the New Yorker’s Joshua Yaffa - discussed the complexities of gathering accurate information, the role of social media in the prosecution and coverage of the war, and the balance between the war’s many local realities on the one hand and its global impact on the other. They took up the achievements of journalists covering the war, while also reflect...
Nov 09, 2022•1 hr 20 min
In this conversation, moderated by Hanna Notte, Professor Michael Gordin and Professor Siegfried Hecker discussed the role of modern physical sciences in the U.S.-Soviet and U.S.-Russian relationship: What collaboration between scientists from both countries exist historically? Were there instances in which such collaboration had a positive impact on policy, and what can be learned from them for the future? And why and how does science diplomacy matter more generally?
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr
In the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, the historian Stephen Kotkin published an essay titled “The Cold War Never Ended.” In this conversation, moderated by Michael Kimmage, Professor Kotkin discussed the history of the Cold War, the thirty-year period between the collapse of the Soviet Union and Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the unfinished nature of the Cold War contest that began in the 1940s. Professor Kotkin brought historical examples and precedents to bear on causes of ...
Oct 21, 2022•1 hr 31 min
The United States has been a key factor in the war launched by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. This panel on the Biden administration strategies and decision-making takes up three questions in turn. What was the Biden administration policy before the war? In what ways has the Biden administration policy shaped outcomes in the war? And what end state for the war is the Biden administration trying to achieve? This panel features three leading experts on Western policy toward Rus...
Oct 14, 2022•1 hr 29 min
Europe is facing unprecedented turbulence. This installment of the Monterey Conversations is not forcing any analogies between past and present. Instead, it takes up the subject of the First World War with an eye to its present-day salience. What might the origins of World War I tell us about the nature of conflict in Europe? How did the First World War become a world war in the first place? And how did World War I end - on the battlefield and at the diplomatic tables? What can we learn today fr...
Oct 05, 2022•1 hr 15 min
Historically, Foreign Affairs magazine has published some of the most important writing on Russia, the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet space, going back to George Kennan’s legendary “X” article of 1947. In this conversation, Michael Kimmage and Daniel Kurtz-Phelan (Editor of Foreign Affairs) discussed the origins of the war in Ukraine, the global ramifications of this war and the choices faced by the Biden administration. It also took a close look at the policy debate over which Foreign Affairs...
Sep 23, 2022•1 hr 14 min
Galina Yuzefovich and Alexander Baunov discuss the state of literature at a time of war, addressing such questions as whether the reading of literature will be overshadowed by the reading of news and whether new identities and literary trends will form. Informed by the speakers' knowledge of classical literature, the discussion offers a way of looking at the current war in Ukraine through a classical literary lens.
Aug 22, 2022•56 min
Robert Legvold, Olga Oliker, and Sergey Radchenko discuss the future of diplomacy between Russia and the United States, including the extent to which diplomacy is still possible and the priorities that must define it.
Jul 31, 2022•49 min
Hanna Notte analyzes the prisms through which Russia views the MENA region and provides a comprehensive overview of Russia’s regional foreign policy interests and strategies.
Jul 29, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Ambassador Steven Pifer presents his insights on the historical origins of the Russia-Ukraine war, including the Kremlin’s motivations for invading, and predicts the conflict’s future trajectory. Ambassador Steven Pifer is William J. Perry Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford and was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for 25 years, serving in many positions including U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.
Jul 29, 2022•41 min
Robert Legvold and Dmitri Trenin discuss the possible future scenarios faced by the Russian state, addressing the state leaders’ perception of the status quo, their goals, and the challenges they must confront in both domestic and foreign policy. The event is moderated by Michael Kimmage.
Jul 29, 2022•1 hr 7 min
Hans Gutbrod, Associate Professor at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia, elaborates on the ethics of political commemoration, using just war theory to develop a framework for making memory politics more constructive and sustainable.
Jul 29, 2022•42 min
Ivan Kurilla and Jade McGlynn discuss the importance of history in politics and vice versa, analyzing the ways in which political actors are at once shaping, and shaped by, the past.
Jul 27, 2022•43 min
Andrei Zorin, Professor of Russian and Fellow of New College, Oxford University, discusses Russia’s mythology of supreme power in its traditional and modern iterations as well as the nuances of Russian national identity.
Jul 26, 2022•48 min
Andrei Zorin, Professor of Russian and Fellow of New College, Oxford University, discusses Russia’s myth of national transformation, particularly the five transformations that have shaped the country’s historical course, from the adoption of Christianity to the 2022 war in Ukraine.
Jul 25, 2022•46 min
Yuri Slezkine and Jade McGlynn speak about the legacies, memories, and identities associated with the Soviet Union as they are experienced in Russia and its neighboring states.
Jul 25, 2022•44 min
Serhii Plokhii, Sergey Radchenko, and Vladislav Zubok offer unique insights on the how and why of the Soviet collapse in a roundtable that challenges popular historiographical myths about the world-shaking event. Serhii Plokhii is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and the director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. His book, The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union, was published in 2015. Sergey Radchenko is the Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguis...
Jul 23, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Regina Elsner, Andrei Tsygankov, and Zheng Wang discuss the role of emotions, values, and historical memory in international relations and reveal the limitations of rationality-based explanations in particular instances.
Jul 23, 2022•49 min
Mark Galeotti, Michael Kofman, and Marlene Laruelle discuss Russian power at the intersection of military might, elite loyalty, and public support. The discussion is moderated by Michael Kimmage.
Jul 21, 2022•34 min
Mark Galeotti demystifies the “siloviki” by unpacking their identity, diversity, and influence over Russian elite policymaking and society at large.
Jul 21, 2022•50 min
Amb. Venkatesh Varma analyzes the factors of stability in the India-Russia relationship and outlines how the conflict in Ukraine is seen from New Delhi. Amb. Venkatesh Varma was a Member of the Indian Foreign Service from 1988 to 2021. During his diplomatic career, he has worked in the Ministry of External Affairs, in the Office of External Affairs Minister and in the Prime Minister’s Office. He served as India’s Ambassador to Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, to the Kingdom of Spain and to t...
Jul 20, 2022•42 min
Marlene Laruelle and Vuk Vuksanovic discuss the sources of Russian soft power and the Kremlin’s flexible tactics of projecting influence abroad. The discussion focuses in particular on the Balkans, where local actors play a significant role in amplifying Russian narratives. Marlene Laruelle is Director and Research Professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES), Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University. Vuk Vuksanovic is a senior re...
Jul 19, 2022•41 min
