Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on March 30, 2026 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Harriman Institute for a lecture by Anastassia Obydenkova. Moderated by Elise Giuliano.
What are the implications of Non-Democratic Regional Organizations (NDROs) for the promotion of a sustainable agenda in Eurasia? Specifically, how do these organizations advance—or impede—environmental initiatives across the Post-Communist region? This lecture addresses these questions by fostering a dialogue between the fields of environmental regionalism and authoritarian regionalism. While the theory of ‘authoritarian regionalism’—also known as the study of NDROs—is a relatively nascent field, existing literature has primarily focused on the political, cultural, economic, and security dimensions of non-democratic institutions. However, a distinct subset of NDROs, namely multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) or regional development banks, remains under-researched within the intersection of sustainability and authoritarian regionalism. This lecture examines the sustainability approaches of key regional development banks in Eurasia by analyzing their legal frameworks (1991-2021) and social media presence (2017-2021). The session highlights the external influences—from both Western and Eastern actors—that shape their environmental agendas. Ultimately, this ‘plausibility probe’ study argues that these NDROs navigate a complex landscape of international pressure and regional interests.
Anastassia Obydenkova is a Research Scientist at the Institute for Economic Analysis of the Spanish National Research Council (IAE-CSIC) and an affiliated Professor at the Barcelona School of Economics. She holds a PhD in Political and Social Science from the European University Institute in Florence (Italy) and an MA from the Central European University (Budapest-Vienna). She held multiple teaching and research appointments around the world, at Harvard University, Zurich University (Switzerland), Uppsala University (Sweden), Carleton University (Canada), Princeton University, and MacMillan Center at Yale University, among others.
Dr. Obydenkova’s expertise is in comparative politics and international relations with a focus on geopolitics, regional international organizations, environmental politics and sustainable development, regionalism, democratization, historical legacies, and post-Communism, with area-focus on Post-Communist Europe, Eurasia and China. Her work on these topics had been published in such journals as European Journal of Political Research, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Post-Soviet Affairs, Review of International Organizations, Intelligence, Environmental Research, Democratization, and Journal of Democracy, etc. She is a (co-) author and editor of 12 books and special issues, with the most recent books published by Oxford University Press (2019), Routledge (2015; 2023; 2024), and Cambridge University Press (2021). She welcomes MA and PhD students working on related research topics. Her complete list of publications can be found here. You are welcome to contact her via email: Anastassia.Obydenkova@alumni.eui.eu. For more information: https://www.ibei.org/en/anastassia-obydenkova_110316
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