Valdai Club

Professor of political science, University of Rhode Island.



Ph.D. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia; awarded an honorary doctorate at Novgorod State University in Russia (1997).



Previous positions: teacher and founder, Center for Contemporary Russian Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies (1987); International Affairs fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; special assistant for policy in the Office of Soviet Union Affairs in the U.S. Department of State; temporary political attachй at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow (1989–1990); advisor to the mayor of the Russian city of Novgorod the Great (2001–2002); Fulbright Research Scholar in Ukraine (2013–2014).

Research interests: religion, history, culture and their role in the democratic development, first of all, in Russia.

Selected publications: Crafting Democracy: How Novgorod has Coped with Rapid Social Change (2004); Russian Foreign Policy: From Empire to Nation-State (co-authored with Alvin Z. Rubinstein, 1997); e Rebirth of Russian Democracy: An Interpretation of Political Culture (1995). His latest book, on politics and the Russian Orthodox Church, is under contract to Stanford University Press.

Author of articles in The American Interest, Asia Times, Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Washington Times, Wilson Quarterly, Comparative Strategy, Post-Soviet Affairs, Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy, World Development, Fletcher Forum, and Harvard International Review.