Valdai Club

Senior Fellow, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation

After graduating from Waseda University with a degree in political science, Taisuke Abiru earned his MA at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University). He has assumed the current post since January 2017. Before that he had worked as Research Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation (TKFD), a leading Japanese think-tank, for 12 years. His research interests include Japan-Russia relations, US-Russia relations, China-Russia relations and Russia’s internal politics. 

Founding Director, French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS)

Professor of international relations in the “Institut d’Etudes européennes” (Institute for European Studies) in the University of Paris-8. Director of the quarterly journal “La Revue internationale et stratégique” (International and strategic review) since 1991, and the Editor of “L’Année stratégique” (Strategic Yearbook) since 1985.

He has published or edited more than sixty books dealing with International Relations, Nuclear Deterrence and Disarmament, European Security, French International Policy, Sport in the International Relations and also on the conflict in the Middle East and its impact in France. Several books have become classics, reissued on a regular basis and translated in several languages. Pascal Boniface publishes articles in international and strategic reviews, is regularly present in the national and international media, written or audiovisual, and takes part in many conferences in France and abroad.

Academic Director of the Russian International Affairs Council.

Former Deputy Director of the Institute for US and Canadian Studies. Founder and first president of the Moscow Public Science Foundation. Taught Russian foreign policy at the University of Miami (USA), and at the Lewis & Clark College in Portland (University of California). In 2011–2023 he was Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, non-profit partnership established by order of the President of the Russian Federation.

Academic focus: international relations, foreign and domestic policy of Russia and Russian-American relations.

Head, Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe (Vienna), Friedrich Ebert Foundation 

Dr. Reinhard Krumm got his MA in Russian History from the University of Hamburg (1989), and his PhD from Regensburg University (2003), where he is a lecturer on Russian History since 2007. He holds an honoree professorship from the department of Political Science at Moscow State University. He worked as a journalist in the former Soviet Union (1991–1998), being the Moscow correspondent of Der Spiegel magazine (1996–1998). He then joined the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, serving as the Head of the Regional Central Asian office in Tashkent/Uzbekistan (2003–2007), as the Head of the Russian office in Moscow (2007–2012) and as the Head of the Department of Central and Eastern Europe, Berlin (2012–2016). His latest publication is Europe´s Security Governance and Transatlantic Relations.

Сhairman and Director of research, Eurasia Group.

His work focuses on Russia and Eurasia, the Middle East, and global macro issues. Clifford Kupchan has published numerous articles and essays on Russia, Iran, and U.S. foreign policy. He frequently lectures on U.S. relations with Russia and Iran, and on global trends. He is a frequent commentator on television news programs and in many major U.S. and European newspapers.  

Before joining Eurasia Group, he served as Vice President and Senior Fellow at The Center for the National Interest. He lived in Moscow where he was Vice President of the Eurasia Foundation (2000–2002). During the Clinton Administration, Clifford Kupchan served as a senior official at the US Department of State. Before that, he worked for many years for the House International Relations Committee.  He served as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor for Eurasia, North Africa and foreign assistance.

Senior Research Fellow, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Anatol Lieven is a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC. His main research focus at present is the development and nature of nationalism in the contemporary world. His next book will be a debate on the question of migration to Europe. His most recent books are Pakistan: A Hard Country (2011); America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism (second edition 2012); and Ethical Realism: A Vision for America’s Role in the World (with John Hulsman, 2007).

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the European University in St. Petersburg, academic supervisor of the Center for the Study of Cultural Memory and Symbolic Politics, visiting professor of the Central European University, Budapest.

Visiting Research Professor, Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore (NUS). Former Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore (NUS). Prior to that, he was a professor of South Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board and served as the diplomatic editor and Washington correspondent for the national daily The Hindu. Mohan was the founding director of Carnegie India, a Delhi-based research centre. He holds a PhD in International Relations (Strategic Studies and Arms Control) from the JNU.

Senior Research Fellow, Global Challenges Studies, Xinhua News Agency

He is Researcher and Director of Russian Internal Affairs Office, Euro-Asia Social Development Research Institute; Executive Member of Center of Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies.

Between 1978 and 2000 Sheng Shiliang served three terms (14 years in total) at the Moscow Branch of Xinhua News Agency, first as a reporter and then the Deputy Branch Chief. Has participated in the Valdai Discussion Club meetings since 2007.

His main works include: A Guide to Journalism Translation; Witnessing the Unexpected; Around the Globe; China's Neighboring Countries; Putin in my opinion. Author of more than 1000 articles and essays on Russia, the CIS and international relations. 

Professor, Hosei University (Japan)           

Honorary research fellow of Birmingham University (UK) (1983–1985). Professor of Seikei from 1985 and Hosei University from 1988. Visiting fellow of Harvard Research Center (1992–1994), LSE Cold War Research Center (2009), Institute of the Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2009). Chairperson of Japanese Research Association of International Relations. Member of Russian-Japanese Emeritus Club (2004–2006). Has participated in the Valdai Discussion Club meetings since 2007.

Head of Research Department, Leibniz Institute Peace Research Institute Frankfurt; Research Professor, National Research University-Higher School of Economics, Moscow 

Among others he is Regional Coordinator for Eurasia of the “Bertelsmann Transformation Index” (BTI) and member of the German-Russian “Petersburg Dialogue”. In 1997 he founded the “Schlangenbad Talks”, an annual German-Russian conference series on foreign and security policy. He was member (2005–2012), and chairman (2007–2011), of the Advisory Board on Civilian Crisis Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Peace Building of the German Foreign Ministry.

Recent Publications: Pluraler Frieden – Leitgedanken zu einer neuen Russlandpolitik (co-authored, 2017); Russia's Turn Eastward, China's Turn Westward: Cooperation and Conflict on the New Silk Road (2016); The Future of European Security (2015); More than a Road Bump? The German-Russian Crisis Within the Crisis (2015); The Comparative International Politics of Democracy Promotion (2014), and others.

Deputy Director at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow

Dmitry Suslov conducts research on various issues of international relations, including US foreign and domestic policy and Russia-US relations, Russian foreign policy, Russia-EU relations. He regularly consults the Russian government institutions and business enterprises on these and other issues. He is also a Senior lecturer at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of the National Research University Higher School of Economics since 2006, as well as Deputy Director for Research at the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy since 2004. Dmitry Suslov has co-authored several books (incl. The U.S. Policy in Asia Pacific (2014), Non-Military Instruments of the Russian Foreign Policy: Regional and Global Mechanisms (2012); Russia: a Strategy for the New World (2011); Russia vs. Europe. Confrontation or Alliance? (2009); Russia and the World. A New Epoch (2008); The World Politics (2008); The World Around Russia: 2017 (2007). At the Higher School of Economics (School of World Economy and International Affairs) he teaches courses on the US Domestic and Foreign Policy, Introduction to International Relations, Global Governance, US-Russia Relations, and Russia-EU Relations.

Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation.

Daniel Webster Professor, Department of Government, Dartmouth College 

Formerly Professor, Department of Government (political science), Dartmouth College (2005–2008); Associate Professor, Department of Government, Dartmouth College (2000–2005); Assistant Professor, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University (1998–2000); Assistant Professor, Department of Politics, Princeton University (1989–1996).

His research interests include international relations theory, the Cold War, and US and Russian foreign policy. He is the author or editor of eight books and some 60 articles and book chapters on topics ranging from the Cold War and its end to unipolarity and contemporary US grand strategy.

Professor, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva; Director of Center of One Belt, One Road and Eurasian Security, China National Institute for SCO Studies, Shanghai

He was Director of China Policy Analysis at HEID. Xiang Lanxin held the Henry A. Kissinger Chair of Foreign Policy and International Affairs at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, (2003-2004). He has also held a Chair of International Affairs at Fudan University in Shanghai, and Zijiang Chair at East China Normal University and a Visiting Chair at Foreign Affairs University (CFAU), Beijing. He is a Senior Associate at CSIS in Washington, DC, and Contributing Editor at Survival, IISS, London.

Xiang Lanxin is a regular commentator for South China Morning Post, Hong Kong and Global Times, Beijing.

He has a PhD from the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University.

Academician of the Academy of Public Sciences (APS) of the PRC, Director of the APS Centre for Geography and History of Chinese Border Territories, leading research associate.

Research interests: relations between China and the Central Asian countries; relations between China and Russia; relations between Chinese neighboring countries and Chinese borderland.