Alexei Georgievich Arbatov, Ph.D., Head of the Center for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) and Scholar in Residence at the Carnegie Center Moscow, will visit the MIIS campus this week as part of the Visiting Experts program of the Graduate Initiative in Russian Studies. Dr. Arbatov, who is a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will deliver two seminars. The first of these is entitled, “Putin’s Policies in Light of Early and Recent Russian History,” and it will be delivered in Russian. The second, entitled “Russia’s Most Recent Security Developments,” will be an informal discussion in English. The lectures will take place on Friday, October 9 from 10:00 AM-12:00 PM and 12:30-1:50 PM respectively at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in the videoconference room. Dr. Arbatov is a leading expert on arms control and disarmament, as well as military policy, foreign policy, and international security. Additionally, he served in the State Duma, as vice chairman of the Russian United Democratic Party (Yabloko), and also as deputy chairman of the Duma Defense Committee. His expertise in the political and academic world will inform his assessment of Russian security policy in a way that is sure to be of interest to students, faculty, and the Monterey community alike. Following his lecture, students will have the opportunity to discuss issues pertinent to their research interests with Dr. Arbatov in individual consultations.
The first of Dr. Arbatov’s lectures on Friday is dedicated to his father, the late academician Dr. Georgii Arkadyevich Arbatov, and constitutes the inaugural lecture of the Georgii Arbatov Lecture Series of GIRS. Georgii Arkadyevich founded the influential Institute of US and Canada and is responsible for the establishment of such academic disciplines as American Studies in Russia. He served as an advisor to Andropov, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, and Yeltsin, and he played critical roles in negotiating key treaties between Russia and the Soviet Union. He is universally regarded as having substantially improved the relationship between the two countries. The Georgii Arbatov Lecture Series is therefore dedicated to cooperation in arms control and disarmament between the US and Russia during the Cold War.
Dr. Arbatov is the third of six lecturers who will visit the MIIS campus this semester through the GIRS program. The Visiting Experts program is a foundational element of the GIRS initiative, alongside three other objectives: a field research trip to the Russian Far East for MIIS and Middlebury students led by Professor Tsuneo Akaha; coordinating and supporting MIIS students in undertaking summer research and internship opportunities in Russia; and translating weekly public opinion polls conducted by the Levada-center from Russian to English. For more information on the list of upcoming experts for this semester and on the Initiative itself, please visit:http://www.miis.edu/academics/researchcenters/russian-studies
