News Archive

Friday, May 12, 2017

Timothy Frye on NY1 Discussing Firing of James Comey

Timothy M. Frye, Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy,  Chair of Columbia's Department of Political Science, and former Director of the Harriman Institute, discusses on NY1 the firing of FBI Director James Comey, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's visit to the White House.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Mark Andryczyk Interviewed About His Book, The Intellectual Hero in 1990s Ukrainian Fiction

Mark Andryczyk, Staff Associate, Ukrainian Studies Program, was interviewed by UkeTube Ukrainian video about his book, The Intellectual Hero in 1990s Ukrainian Fiction. Listen to it here.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Anna Frajlich to Receive Wybitny Polak Award in Recognition of Her Contributions to Polish Culture

It has been announced that Anna Frajlich (Senior Lecturer Emerita, Slavic Languages) has been named the recipient of the Wybitny Polak (Distinguished Pole) award in recognition of her many contributions to Polish culture. She will be presented a statuette at a ceremony to be hosted by the Consul General at the Consulate General of Poland in New York, on May 10, 2017, Poland's Constitution Day.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

The Harriman Institute Launches Expert Opinions, a New Podcast on EurasiaNet

In the inaugural episode, Masha Udensiva-Brenner sits down with three experts and a novelist to discuss the public protests that erupted all over Russia in late March, the aftermath, and the evolving state of U.S.-Russia relations.

 
Guests:
 
Maria Snegovaya, a doctoral candidate in Columbia’s Department of Political Science and a columnist for the Russian business daily Vedomosti, is a frequent political commentator on TV and radio, and a contributor to media outlets such as the New Republic and the Washington Post.
 
Yana Gorokhovskaia is a postdoctoral research scholar in Russian Politics at the Harriman Institute. Her scholarship has appeared in Post-Soviet Affairs, among others. She recently published a piece on the Russian protests at IPI’s Global Observatory.
 
Maria Lipman, a Russian political analyst and commentator, currently Visiting Distinguished Fellow of Russian Studies at Indiana University, is the founding editor of the Counterpoint journal published by the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (George Washington University). She was the editor-in-chief of the Pro et Contra journal published by the Carnegie Moscow Center, and an expert of the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Society and Regions Program. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, and the New Yorker, among others.
 
Sana Krasikov is the award-winning author of the novel The Patriots (2017) and the short story collection One More Year (2008). In April 2017, she was one of the twenty-one U.S. novelists included in Granta’s decennial Best of Young American Novelists list.

*Photograph by Evgeny Feldman, “This is Navalny” Project

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Stephen Sestanovich on "The Brilliant Incoherence of Trump's Foreign Policy" in The Atlantic

Stephen Sestanovich, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor for the Practice of International Diplomacy, writes on "The Brilliant Incoherence of Trump's Foreign Policy" in the May 2017 issue of The Atlantic. According to Sestanovich, every 20 years or so the U.S. "debates whether to do more or less abroad. Trump won by promising both. But he can't possible deliver."

 

 

 

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Rebecca Kobrin, "How Will the White House Remember the Holocaust?"

Rebecca Kobrin, Russell and Bettina Knapp Assistant Professor of American Jewish History, contributed an opinion piece to CNN (April 23, 2017), titled "How Will the White House Remember the Holocaust?":

"Monday is Yom Hashoah, the day designated in 1953 by the State of Israel to commemorate the murder of millions of Jews during the Second World War. Selected to mark the anniversary of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising, this day is meant to impart a lesson: Jews should be remembered not only for dying in the Holocaust, but for fighting for their lives as well. But perhaps the most important lesson of the Holocaust for Americans is the role that open borders for refugees can play in saving victims from unspeakable violence.
 
Since January 20, I have often pondered: What does our current administration see as the lessons for Americans to learn from the Holocaust? Especially on the occasion of Yom Hashoah, I cannot stop thinking that a deeper knowledge of the the world's role in the Holocaust is needed in America."
 
You can read the full piece here.
Thursday, April 20, 2017

Mark Mazower Reviews Books on War and Peace for Financial Times
 Mark Mazower, Ira D. Wallach Professor of History, reviewed books on war and peace by Azar Gat, Martin van Creveld, AC Grayling, and David Armitage in the Financial Times (April 13, 2017).

From the review's opening paragraph:

"This turbulent international scene of ours is starting to resemble one we thought we’d left behind a long time ago. President Donald Trump once professed to be against foreign entanglements. Now he fires Tomahawks into Syria and sends an aircraft carrier to the Korean Peninsula. In the South China Sea the arms race is accelerating. The air is thick with jets over the east Aegean. With American hegemony challenged by the rise of China, some talk about a return to the late 19th century. We know where that world of jostling great powers ended up: it is not surprising if people have war on their minds."
Thursday, April 20, 2017

Kimberly Marten Interviewed on Charlie Rose This Week about U.S.-Russia Relations

Kimberly Marten (Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, and Director of the Harriman Institute's Program on U.S.-Russia Relations) appeared on Charlie Rose This Week (April 14, 2017) to talk about the current state of U.S.-Russia Relations following Rex Tillerson's visit to Russia and his meetings with Sergey Lavrov and Vladimir Putin. 

You can find the interview here. Marten's interview with Rose begins at 10.28.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Timothy Frye Interviewed on CNBC about Tillerson's Meeting with Putin
Timoth Frye (Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy) was interviewed on CNBC about the meeting between Rex Tillerson and Vladimir Putin (April 12, 2017).
Tuesday, April 18, 2017

"Into the Unknown: U.S.-Russia Relations Unhinged" by Robert Legvold

In his thoughtful essay "Into the Unknown: U.S.-Russian Relations Unhinged" (Valdai Paper #64), Robert Legvold (Marshall D. Shulman Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, and Director of the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative) explores the Trump administrations's policy on Russia.

From the opening:

"If the larger picture defies prediction, the immediate future is scarcely more transparent. In the U.S. case, the known unknowns are numerous. They begin with the question of how much deck furniture Trump is willing to overturn in order to pursue an “America First” strategy. More fundamentally, how likely is it that he really means to abandon a leadership role for the United States in global politics and substitute a stark realpolitik approach to foreign policy issues? Already in the fourth week after a tumultuous first three weeks in office, he and his team had retreated on their more extreme positions: on a “One China” policy in a renewed pledge to Xi Jinping; on the Iran nuclear agreement in a pledge to Federica Mogherini; and on the U.S. mutual defense pact with Japan in a pledge to Shinzō Abe. Toward Russia the language quickly hardened in the speeches of senior foreign and defense policy officials. Thus, early signs suggested that the radical departure implied by the President’s pre- and post-election comments would melt away once harsh reality and difficult choices set in. But who could say for sure?"

The essay is available in English and Russian translation here.