Ukraine and Russia: Politics and Conflict in a Post-Soviet World on February 4, 2010

Posted on January 4, 2010 | Filed Under Past Events

As seen in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL on

January 27, 2010: “Ukraine Needs the West’s Support“

UkraineOne of the largest countries in Europe and a critical transportation point for natural gas from Russia, Ukraine has long been a centerpiece in the struggle for influence in the post-Soviet region.

Now, fractured politics and a disintegrating economy have strained relations with Russia and alarmed its European partners. Ukraine’s future largely hangs on a February runoff when two rivals will go head to head for the Ukrainian Presidency.

Will a disillusioned public and a diminished economy force-out leaders of the Orange Revolution and allow Russia to regain its traditional leadership role in the region?

Join WACRI and DR. MARK KRAMER, Director of the Harvard Cold War Studies program and a Senior Fellow of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University on Thursday, February 4, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. for a timely program on politics and conflict in a post-Soviet world.

Location: The Hope Club, 6 Benevolent Street, Providence

Call now to make your reservation at (401) 228–8657, or email our Executive Director, Yvonne Shilling at ygshill@yahoo.com.

*The Great Decisions Program will take place at 5:00 PM.

For dinner schedule and information, please see Dinner-Speakers in the black navigation bar at the top of this page.

Click “Read More” for additional information about our speaker.

Professor Kramer has taught at Harvard, Yale, and Brown Universities and was formerly an Academy Scholar in Harvard’s Academy of International and Area Studies and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He has worked extensively in newly opened archives in Russia, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia and also in the archives of several Western countries.

Professor Kramer’s publications include, The Crisis in Czechoslovakia, 1968: The Prague Spring and the Soviet Invasion and the August Invasion and Soldier and State in Poland: Civil-Military Relations and Institutional Change After Communism, The Collapse of the Soviet Union, and Crisis in the Communist World, 1956: The Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact, and Upheavals in Poland and Hungary (forthcoming, 2008). He is completing another book—From Dominance to Hegemony to Collapse: Soviet Policy in East-Central Europe, 1945–1991 (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)—which draw heavily on new archival sources. His books highlight the theoretical as well as historical implications of the new archival evidence. Professor Kramer has also edited three books — The Black Book of Communism (Harvard University Press, 1999), The Collapse of the Soviet Union (MIT Press, forthcoming), and Great-Power Rivalries, Tibetan Guerrilla Resistance, and the Cold War in South Asia (Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming).

In addition, he has written nearly 200 articles on a variety of topics, including the demise of the Soviet Union, Sino-Soviet relations, the Soviet and post-Soviet armed forces, the Russian-Chechen war, the structures of Soviet and post-Soviet foreign policy making, nuclear proliferation, NATO and East European security, post-Communist economic reform in East-Central Europe, social policy in East-Central Europe, civil-military relations in East-Central Europe, and the global arms trade.

SPEAKER: MARK KRAMER
THIS IS A LONG FORM BIO….WE WILL NEED TO SHORTEN FOR OUR MAILINGS AND EMAIL:
Mark Kramer is the director of the Harvard Cold War Studies program and a senior fellow of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. He has taught at Harvard, Yale, and Brown Universities and was formerly an Academy Scholar in Harvard’s Academy of International and Area Studies and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He has worked extensively in newly opened archives in Russia, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia and also in the archives of several Western countries.
Professor Kramer’s publications include, The Crisis in Czechoslovakia, 1968: The Prague Spring and the Soviet Invasion and the August Invasion and Soldier and State in Poland: Civil-Military Relations and Institutional Change After Communism, The Collapse of the Soviet Union, and Crisis in the Communist World, 1956: The Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact, and Upheavals in Poland and Hungary (forthcoming, 2008). He is completing another book—From Dominance to Hegemony to Collapse: Soviet Policy in East-Central Europe, 1945–1991 (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)—which draw heavily on new archival sources. His books highlight the theoretical as well as historical implications of the new archival evidence. Professor Kramer has also edited three books — The Black Book of Communism (Harvard University Press, 1999), The Collapse of the Soviet Union (MIT Press, forthcoming), and Great-Power Rivalries, Tibetan Guerrilla Resistance, and the Cold War in South Asia (Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming).
In addition, he has written nearly 200 articles on a variety of topics, including the demise of the Soviet Union, Sino-Soviet relations, the Soviet and post-Soviet armed forces, the Russian-Chechen war, the structures of Soviet and post-Soviet foreign policy making, nuclear proliferation, NATO and East European security, post-Communist economic reform in East-Central Europe, social policy in East-Central Europe, civil-military relations in East-Central Europe, and the global arms trade.