University Center for International Studies Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies
University Center for International Studies Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies

 

Lecture

Irrigation, Cotton-Growing, and the Environment in Central Asia, 19th-21st Centuries

Type: 
Lecture
Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - 11:30am
Event Location: 
Zoom

Studying water infrastructure is an excellent entry point to examine the nexus between the utilization of natural resources and technologies on the one hand, and of politics and everyday life on the other. The talk will first address important findings of a study on irrigation systems and cotton cultivation in Central Asia. Here, the Russian colonizers of the nineteenth century implemented ideas of modernity and transformation that lived on in the Soviet context.

Navalny and Next: Possibilities, Prognosis and Perceptions in Russia

Type: 
Lecture
Monday, March 15, 2021 - 10:00am

After a botched attempt to poison Alexei Navalny in August 2020, the Kremlin has decided to sentence him to over two years in prison upon the oppositionist’s return to Russia in January. Navalny responded with a bombshell video about the corruption around “Putin’s Palace.” Unsanctioned, mass protests filled the two capitals and tens of provincial cities resulted. The protesters were met with mass, indiscriminate arrests, and police violence. The political ante in this back-and-forth has certainly risen but to what end?

A Model of US Foreign Policy: Capitalist Liberal Exceptionalism

Type: 
Lecture
Monday, March 22, 2021 - 10:00am to 11:30am
Event Location: 
Zoom

The talk will present an American foreign policy model--capitalist liberal exceptionalism--that accounts for the US behaviors around the world. Most importantly, the model integrates multiple factors, including the international system and domestic politics, into the analysis, delivering a concise interpretation of US foreign policy over time since the foundation of the nation.