Tuesday December 9
Some light reading…
How the wall came tumbling down
The world turned out better than we expected…
…and created a world of opportunity
How we squandered the peace dividend
Gorbachev scolds the West for dropping the post-Cold War ball
American Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11 (book review)
Did the era of danger and paranoia never really go away?
Tuesday December 9
November marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which paved the way for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. At the time, many believed (or simply wanted to believe) that this would be the dawn of a new era, where the collapse of communism and the spread of Western liberal and democratic ideals would usher in an era of global peace and prosperity. But looking around the world today (ISIS, Ukraine/Russia, the struggling and unequal global economy, the suffering environment…) it’s hard to imagine what we were thinking.
We thought this would be a great opportunity to propose a mix of history, politics and perhaps even a dash of hindsight by reflecting on how the world has evolved since those fateful days in 1989.
Can we say that the world is indeed a better place? Were nations, leaders and politicians able to transform that positive energy into tangible benefits or did they drop the ball, squandering an opportunity to truly reshape the world? Or is there perhaps some sort of historical inevitability so that despite our best efforts in the face of such momentous and uplifting events the world will always be rife with conflict, struggle and instability?
We hope you can join us on December 9th.
April Fools Day, 2014
Our guest Prof. Oleg Kobtzeff opened the evening with an engaging history of the Ukrainian people that took us from the Middle Ages, when Tatars ruled and the Cossacks appeared, through the early and late twentieth century, focusing on Ukraine’s complicated relations with Russia, up until the collapse of the Soviet Union. He described post-Soviet Ukraine as a veritable Dodge City, where euphoria and freedom gave way to a general free-for-all and corruption.
With no strong leader (such as Putin) to establish a rule of law, the 2000s brought the Anti-Kuchma Revolt and the Orange Revolution, before climaxing with the events of this winter that spiraled into a larger geo-political crisis. It has entangled Russia, the United States, the EU and NATO, with ramifications for everything from the civil war in Syria to China sitting on the sidelines.
And then the hands went up!
Some light reading for April 1
We cannot begin to summarize everything that is being discussed both in print and online about the on-going situation in Ukraine, but we do have a few links below that should help set the table for our discussion on Tuesday. Don’t feel like you have to get through everything. However, a multiple choice quiz will be passed out at the end of the evening, with an essay for extra credit!
OUR GUEST: OLEG KOBTZEFF
Prof. Kobtzeff is a regular contributor on France 24. You can watch some of his appearances in both French and English, including roundtables focused on the situation in Ukraine, on his blog. He also recently published this piece on the website Opinion Internationale.
OUR LINKS
Ukraine
Why they look West – Ukraine, poverty and the EU
Russia
UKRAINE AND THE FATE OF POPULAR REVOLT IN OUR WORLD TODAY
A special guest for April 1
To help focus and inform our discussion on the on-going situation in Ukraine we are pleased to announce that we will be joined by Oleg Kobtzeff, an assistant professor of international and comparative politics at the American University of Paris.
Professor Kobtzeff is Franco-American and has family ties to both Ukraine and Russia. His work focuses on a wide range of geopolitical issues, including Russia’s political and social history and its relations with the United States. Continue reading
the political pub 