This talk will describe the articles Gessen has written since the start of the war and try to summarize some of what he's learned. The articles cover the effects of the war in Western Ukraine; the political science debates over "war termination"; the political science and historical debates over regime change; the fierce debates over whether negotiations with the Kremlin are possible; the arguments over military analysis and its failures or successes in thinking about this war; and debates about public opinion in Russia during the war. Gessen will also describe his work on "Russia hands"--the people who study Russia for a living, inside or in proximity to the U.S. Government--and what their relative contributions are to U.S. policy. The hope is to generate discussion and further thinking on war and peace in Russia and Ukraine.

About the Speaker
Keith Gessen was born in Moscow, in the U.S.S.R., and grew up in Massachusetts. He has been writing about Russia for the last twenty-five years. He is a founding editor of the literary magazine n+1, the translator of Kirill Medvedev, and the author of the novel A Terrible Country. He now serves as George T. Delacorte Assistant Professor of Magazine Journalism at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and is a contributing writer at The New Yorker.

Host
Reppy Institute For Peace and Conflict Studies

Co-Sponsors
Department of Comparative Literature
Institute for European Studies