Frozen Conflicts Twenty Years After the Fall of the Soviet Union
Friday, 02 December 2011
Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union the conflicts in Abkhazia, Nagorno Karabakh, South Ossetia and Transnistria remain unresolved and their dynamics continue to impact political stability, state-building and great power competition in the former Soviet Union. Over the last years, the international community’s strategy for addressing them has varied significantly. By bringing together leading scholars, policy analysts, and NGO representatives from Europe, the United States and Eurasia to discuss these issues we hope to provide an opportunity to reflect on the last twenty years and to think about possible steps forward.
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What Does the Future Hold for Ukraine?
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Please join the Harriman Institute and the Ukrainian Studies Program for a political conversation with Vitaly Klychko, Chairman of the UDAR (Ukrainian Alliance for Democratic Reforms) Party.
Video coverage
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The Strategic Backlash Against Human Rights Across Eurasia
Thursday, 06 October 2011
Please join the Harriman Institute for a panel discussion with the following participants: Graeme Robertson (University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill), Christopher Walker (Freedom House), Hugh Williamson (Human Rights Watch), and Robert Templer (International Crisis Group). Moderator: Alex Cooley (Barnard College, Columbia University).
This event is part of the “Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes ” series (Harriman Core Project 2010-2011).
Video coverage
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Russian Elections 2011-12: Is There a Chance For Political Opposition?
Friday, 16 September 2011
Please join the Harriman Institute for a panel discussion with Boris Nemtsov, Evgeniya Chirikova and Andranik Migranyan. Moderator will be Timothy Frye, Director of the Harriman Institute.
Boris Nemtsov is a Russian politician and co-chairman of the Democratic opposition movement Solidarnost (Solidarity). From 1991 to 1997 he was Governor of Nizhny Novgorod region, and served as First Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. In 1999 he ran for public office as a co-founder of the new Russian liberal political party Union of Right Forces (SPS). He led the party’s parliamentary group in the Russian Duma. In 2008 he joined the opposition movement and became co-chairman of Solidarity. He is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin and his regime.
Evgeniya Chirikova is an environmental activist and leader of the movement “Ecological Defense of Moscow Region” and of the unregistered “Movement for Protection of the Khimki Forrest.” Since 2007 Ms. Chirikova has worked to focus attention on the government’s plans to build the federal Moscow-St. Petersburg highway through the Khimki district of the Moscow region, in violation of various laws. In March 2011, the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met Eugenia and presented her with the Woman of Courage Award during his visit to Russia.
Andranik Migranyan is the director of the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation, a non-governmental think tank based in New York dedicated to promoting understanding and cooperation between Russia and the United States. Dr. Migranyan served on the Russian Presidential Advisory Council in the 1990s under Boris Yeltsin. Dr. Migranyan is a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), and has been published in The New York Times and The National Interest.
Co-sponsored by the Institute of Modern Russia.
Video Coverage
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A Reading by Ludmila Ulitskaya
Tuesday, 05 April 2011
Renowned Russian author Ludmila Ulitskaya will give a reading from her new novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter (Overlook Press, 2011)
Ludmila Ulitskaya is the author of twelve fiction books, of three tales for children and of six plays staged by a number of theatres in Russia and in Germany. She is frequently called the most profound and far-reaching author of the contemporary Russian literature. She made her first appearance on the literary stage as a short-story writer; several collections of Ulitskaya's short stories published under various titles are full of rich color and psychological details. Then followed several novels, each having become an important event of Russian literature of our days. Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of the most published modern Russian writers abroad.
This event is co-sponsored by the Institute of Modern Russia and the Harriman Institute.
Video Coverage
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Roundtable on Emma Gilligan's Terror in Chechnya: Russia and the Tragedy of Civilians in War (Princeton University Press, 2010)
Monday, 04 April 2011
Terror in Chechnya is the definitive account of Russian war crimes in Chechnya. Emma Gilligan provides a comprehensive history of the second Chechen conflict of 1999 to 2005, revealing one of the most appalling human rights catastrophes of the modern era--one that has yet to be fully acknowledged by the international community. Drawing upon eyewitness testimony and interviews with refugees and key political and humanitarian figures, Gilligan tells for the first time the full story of the Russian military's systematic use of torture, disappearances, executions, and other punitive tactics against the Chechen population.
In Terror in Chechnya, Gilligan challenges Russian claims that civilian casualties in Chechnya were an unavoidable consequence of civil war. She argues that racism and nationalism were substantial factors in Russia's second war against the Chechens and the resulting refugee crisis. She does not ignore the war crimes committed by Chechen separatists and pro-Moscow forces. Gilligan traces the radicalization of Chechen fighters and sheds light on the Dubrovka and Beslan hostage crises, demonstrating how they undermined the separatist movement and in turn contributed to racial hatred against Chechens in Moscow.
This panel brings together a group of distinguished scholars and experts to discuss the arguments and findings of Gilligan's book.
Panelists:
Emma Gilligan, Assistant Professor of Russian History and Human Rights, University of Connecticut. She is also the author of Defending Human Rights in Russia: Sergei Kovalyov, Dissident and Human Rights Commissioner, 1969-2003.
Jason Lyall, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University
Kimberly Marten, Professor of Political Science, Barnard College
Diederik Lohman, Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch
This event is part of the “Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes ” series (Harriman Core Project 2010-2011, Co-Directed by Alexander Cooley and Jack Snyder).
Video Coverage
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Nonconformism and Dissent in the Soviet Bloc: Guiding Legacy or Passing Memory?
Wednesday, 30 March 2011–Friday, 01 April 2011
The conference will focus on political and cultural nonconformism in Ukraine, Russia, and Poland in the 1960s to 80s. It will bring together an international assemblage of scholars studying that period of time as well several noteworthy dissidents and artists. The conference will offer a historical overview of the period and will present the latest research conducted on the subject. Additionally, the conference will provide an analysis of the political and cultural legacies of these movements in today’s Ukraine, Russia, and Poland.
The conference will examine these issues through a series of scholarly panels as well as roundtable discussions featuring prominent Soviet-era dissidents and nonconformist artists. The three-day conference will begin with an evening keynote address by Dr. Myroslav Marynovych, former Ukrainian dissident and prisoner of conscience and, currently, Vice-rector for the University Mission of the Ukrainian Catholic University (L'viv, Ukraine); the address will be followed by a reception. Days two and three will include panels and roundtables followed by cultural programming in the evenings showcasing achievements in nonconformist film, music and literature of this era. The conference will conclude with a special North American concert by Victor Morozov, a legendary nonconformist cultural figure in Soviet Ukraine and a major recording artist in Ukraine today, at the Ukrainian Museum (222 East 6th Street).
Participants: Myroslav Marynovych, Pavel Litvinov, Henryk Wujec, Vitaly Komar, Ewa Wójciak, Volodymyr Dibrova, Mykola Riabchuk, Peter Reddaway, Ann Komaromi, Benjamin Nathans, Alexander Motyl, Justyna Beinek, Ksenya Kiebuzinski, Michael Bernhard, Jeri Laber, Mark Andryczyk, Catharine Nepomnyashchy, Anna Procyk, Christina Isajiw, William Risch, Anna Frajlich-Zajac, Yuri Shevchuk, Timothy Frye, Tarik Amar, Frank Sysyn, and Victor Morozov.
The conference is presented by the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. It is organized in collaboration with the Columbia University East Central European Center, the Polish Cultural Institute–New York, and The Ukrainian Museum.
This event is free and open to the public.
For more information please contact Mark Andryczyk at 212-854-4697 or at ukrainianstudies@columbia.edu.
Day 1, Panel 1 Video
Day 2, Panel 1 Video
Day 2, Panel 2 Video
Day 2, Panel 3 Video
Day 3, Panel 1 Video
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Day 3, Panel 3 Video
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Illicit Indicators and the Contested Politics of Numbers
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
International policies on issues such as human trafficking, drug smuggling and armed conflict depend upon accurate measures and statistics of these "hidden" problems. Yet, reliable statistics or data regarding these practices are often in short supply, subject to politicization and even deliberate misrepresentation.
Exaggerating the numbers of victims of an armed conflict, inflating the value of the transnational drug trade or downplaying patterns of domestic violence are commonplace practices adopted by states and international officials to serve political agendas. This panel on Illicit Numbers, comprised of distinguished scholars and practitioners, will investigate the dangers of using problematic statistics and dubious measures in the formulation and conduct of public policy.
Participants: Peter Andreas (Professor, Department of Political Science, Brown University. Co-Editor of Sex, Drugs and Body Counts: The Politics of Numbers in Global Crime and Conflict (Cornell University Press 2010), Elizabeth Eagen (Program Officer, Human Rights Data Initiative, Human Rights and Governance Grants | Information Program, Open Society Foundations), Sally Merry (Professor of Anthropology and Law and Society, New York University and President-elect of the American Ethnological Society), Lara Nettelfield (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, and contributor to Sex, Drugs and Body Counts)
This event is part of the “Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes ” series (Harriman Core Project 2010-2011).
Video Coverage
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The Politics of International Media Rankings
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Participants: Lee Becker (Professor and Director, James. M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, University of Georgia), Karin Karlekar (Senior Researcher and Managing Editor, Freedom of the Press Index, Freedom House), Anne Nelson (Adjunct Associate Professor, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and former Executive Director, Committee to Protect Journalists)
Click here for more information on Lee Becker
Click here for more information on Karin Karlekar
Click here for more information on Anne Nelson
This event is part of the “Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes ” series (Harriman Core Project 2010-2011).
Video Coverage
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Panel Discussion: New Research on Transitional Justice
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Participants: Aryeh Neier (Founder, Human Rights Watch and President, Open Society Institute), Monika Nalepa (Political Science Department, Notre Dame University), Lara Nettelfield (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Harriman Institute, Columbia University), Tina Rosenberg (Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts after Communism), Ruti Teitel (Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law, and Associate Director, Center for International Law, New York Law School, and Visiting Professor, London School of Economics), and Leslie Vinjamuri (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)
Click here for more information on Aryeh Neier
Click here for more information on Monika Nalepa
Click here for more information on Lara Nettelfield
Click here for more information on Tina Rosenberg
Click here for more information on Ruti Teitel
Click here for more information on Leslie Vinjamuri
This event is part of the “Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes ” series (Harriman Core Project 2010-2011).
Video Coverage
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The Current Political Situation in Russia and Perspective for the Future
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Boris Nemtsov (b. 1959) is a leader of the Russian democratic opposition and a former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. He was born in Sochi, graduated from Gorky State University and received his Ph.D. in physics. In 1990 Boris Nemtsov was elected to Parliament as a candidate for the anti-communist "Democratic Russia" movement. Between 1991 and 1997 Nemtsov served as Governor of Nizhny Novgorod region, where he earned the reputation of a successful free market reformer. He was re-elected as Governor in 1995 with 58 per cent of the vote. In 1997 President Boris Yeltsin appointed Nemtsov as First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia - a post he occupied until 1998 (in 1997 simultaneously serving as Oil and Energy Minister). In 1999 Nemtsov became one of the leaders of the "Union of Rightist Forces" party and was once again elected to Parliament. He served as Deputy Speaker of Parliament in 2000 and as leader of the "Union of Rightist Forces" from 2000 to 2004. In 2004 he actively participated in the Ukrainian "Orange Revolution" and after its success became an advisor to President Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2006). Nemtsov was nominated by the "Union of Rightist Forces" as its candidate in the 2008 presidential election, but pulled out, citing the lack of conditions for a free and fair vote. In December 2008 he became one of the leaders of "Solidarity", a new pro-democracy opposition movement which also includes Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Bukovsky, Lev Ponomarev and other prominent figures. In April 2009 Nemtsov ran for Mayor of Sochi, host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics, coming second out of six candidates and establishing the pro-democracy "Solidarity" as the second force in Russian politics, ahead of the Communist Party and Vladimir Zhirinovsky's LDPR.
This event is free and open to the public. No Tickets, no reservations required. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.
For video coverage of the event, please visit http://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=imrussia.
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World Leaders Forum: "Austerity vs. Stimulus: Lithuanian Experience," featuring the President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė
Monday, 08 November 2010
This World Leaders Forum program features an address by Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Lithuania, followed by a question and answer session with the audience. A reception will follow the program.
This program is co-sponsored by The Harriman Institute and East Central European Center.
Please note: this event is only open to Columbia University ID holders.
Video Coverage.
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The Third Annual Russia/Eurasia Forum: How Central is Central Asia?
Friday, 29 October 2010
What are the stakes at play in Central Asia for Russia, the U.S., and China? What are the prospects for renewed violence in Kyrgyzstan? How will Central Asia shape global energy markets in the near future? Because understanding the dynamics of politics and security issues in Central Asia will be high on the agenda of scholars, policymakers, and businesspeople in the coming years, the Davis Center/Harriman Institute Forum will bring together key academic and policymaking experts to discuss these and other related questions.
This event is sponsored by the Harriman Institute, Columbia University, and the Kathryn W. and Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University.
Panel 1 Video
Panel 2 Video
Panel 3 Video
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Mobilizing for Human Rights
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Beth Simmons (Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affair, Harvard University)
Discussants: Kenneth Roth (President, Human Rights Watch); Professor Alexander Cooley (Political Science Department, Barnard College).
Beth Simmons, the Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the Harvard Department of Government, will present her 2009 book, Mobilizing for Human Rights, which Kathryn Sikkink praised as “the most important new work by a social scientist on international law and human rights.” Her previous book, Who Adjusts? Domestic Sources of Foreign Economic Policy, won the 1995 American Political Science Association Woodrow Wilson Award for the best book in government, politics, or international relations. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Simmons earned her Ph.D. in government at Harvard University in 1991.
This event is part of the “Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes ” series (Harriman Core Project 2010-2011).
Video Coverage
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The Justice Cascade
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Kathryn Sikkink (Regents Professor and McKnight Presidential Chair in Political Science, University of Minnesota)
Discussants: Richard Dicker (Director, International Justice Program, Human Rights Watch); Robert O. Keohane (Professor of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, and past president of the American Political Science Association).
Kathryn Sikkink, the seminal figure in the creation of the modern field of international human rights in political science, will preview her forthcoming book on the turn to individual criminal accountability for crimes against humanity and genocide, The Justice Cascade (Norton). Sikkink, the Regents Professor and holder of the McKnight Presidential Chair in Political Science at the University of Minnesota, is the co-author of Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, which won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Sikkink earned her Ph.D. in political science at Columbia University in 1988.
This event is part of the “Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes ” series (Harriman Core Project 2010-2011).
Video Coverage
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Journal of International Affairs Spring/ Summer Issue Launch: Rethinking Russia
Monday, 03 May 2010
The Journal of International Affairs and the Harriman Institute invite you to the launch of the Spring/Summer 2010 issue:
RETHINKING RUSSIA
A conversation, moderated by:
Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, with:
Stephen F. Cohen - New York University
Nina Khrushcheva - The New School
Lincoln Mitchell - Columbia University
Click here for video coverage.
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The Art of Provocation: Tatyana Tolstaya versus her son Artemy Lebedev
Saturday, 03 April 2010, 7:30pm
Faculty House, Presidential Room 2
Best-selling Russian writer Tatyana Tolstaya versus her son Artemy Lebedev, one of the most notorious bloggers of the Russian Internet.
This event is part of the “Media Dialogues Across Boundaries” series (Harriman Core Project 2009-2010: New Modes of Communication in the Post-Soviet World).
This event is free and open to the public. No Tickets, no reservations required. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.
Directions to Faculty House
Click here for the video of this event.
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After Communism: Achievement and Disillusionment Since 1989
Friday, 26 February 2010–Saturday, 27 February 2010
Faculty House, Presidential Room
Presented by The Harriman Institute at Columbia University in association with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Romanian Cultural Institute New York, and Austrian Cultural Forum as part of Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe, a performing arts festival marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, presented by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in partnership with key New York City cultural organizations and academic institutions, November 2009 - March 2010.
This symposium brings together scholars and officials from across the Atlantic to assess the meaning of the revolutions of 1989 for Eastern Europe and the world. Panels will explore the demise of communism, the nature of postcommunism, the legacy of dissent, the promise of democracy in the region, and the creation of narratives about the communist past. Confirmed participants include Adam Michnik, Alfred Gusenbauer, Erhard Busek, Ira Katznelson, Archie Brown, Katherine Verdery, Stephen Kotkin, Stephen Sestanovich and Vladimir Tismaneanu among others.
Click here for the video of this event.
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The International Workshop on Lysenkoism
Saturday, 05 December 2009
Please join the Harriman Institute, the City University of New York, and the Bronx Community College for a conference on science and Trofim Lysenko.
Day 2 at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University:
8:30-9:00—Coffee
9:00-9:30—Welcome, Introductory remarks Harriman Institute Director Timothy Frye
9:30-10:50 (Panel 1): Lysenko and Genetics
Chair: Catharine Nepomnyashchy, Barnard College; Harriman Institute
-Audra Jayne Wolfe, University of Pennsylvania, “Commemoration as Political Weapon, Or, Why We Think of Mendel as the Father of Genetics”
-Luis Campos, Drew University, “Dialectics Denied: Muller, Lysenko, and the Fate of Chromosome Studies in Soviet Genetics”
11:00-12:15 (Panel 2): Western Europe
Chair: Bruno J. Strasser, Yale University
-Francesco Cassata, University of Turin, “The price of obedience: Italian marxist biologists front of PCI‟s Lysenkoism (1948-1953)”
-Leo Molenaar, Stichting Huis van Erasmus, “Dutch Treat: The Reaction to Lysenkoism in Holland”
1:15-2:30 (Panel 3): Germany
Chair: Philipp Rothmaler, Bronx Community College, CUNY
-Alexander von Schwerin, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, “Lysenkoism and the Reform of Postwar West German Genetics”
- Ekkehard Höxtermann, Free University of Berlin, “Lysenkoism in East Germany”
2:45-4:30 (Panel 4): Asia & Latin America
Chair: Joe Dauben, Lehman College; The CUNY Graduate Center
-Laurence Schneider, Washington University, St. Louis, “Lysenkoism in China 1950-1957: Party Authority vs. the Autonomy of Science”
-Arturo ArguetaVillamar, Centro Regional de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias, de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México &
Quetzal Argueta Prado, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas de la Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, “Lysenko and Vavilov in Mexico and Latin America”
-Hirofumi Saito, Tokyo Institute of Technology, “Geneticist Hitoshi Kihara and his paticular role in the period of Lysenkoism in Japan”
4:45-6:30: Concluding Discussion
-Elena Levina, Institute for the History of Science and Technology Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
-Nikolai Krementsov, University of Toronto
-Loren Graham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
-Douglas Weiner, University of Arizona
Video coverage.
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President Boris Tadić of Serbia
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
This World Leaders Forum program features a keynote address by Boris Tadić, President of the Republic of Serbia.
“Opportunity Amidst Crisis: Consolidating the European Future of the Western Balkans”
Co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute and the East Central European Center of Columbia University.
Video Coverage
Link to website
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