The Ellison Center at the University of Washington

In this talk, Seattle native Tony Allison discusses his involvement in a jointly owned Soviet-American fishing venture during the Cold War period. Allison served as Director of the Nakhodka and Moscow offices of the Marine Resources Company and then, after the end of the Soviet Union, as CEO from 1990 until its closure in 2001. The company sponsored or initiated several other forms of citizen diplomacy with the USSR-Russia.

Allison became a high school history teacher in Seattle and then transitioned to teaching environmental education at the Washington Park Arboretum and Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and recently initiated an environmental education exchange between Botanical Gardens in Russia and the Pacific Northwest.

This talk was presented as part of the Ellison Center's Fall 2017 Master Teacher Workshop: Glasnost and Goodwill: The Cold War, Washington State, and the Power of Citizen Diplomacy.

Glennys Young is a Professor in the History Department and the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. In this talk, Dr. Young considers the Cold War in relation to Washington State - the effect of the war on the state and their role in it - how residents contributed to efforts for peace, and what this could mean in today's "increasingly dangerous times."

Romanian Ambassador to the U.S. George Maior is both a diplomat and a scholar, with great expertise in security and intelligence, international law, and political science. His written works and lectures reflect on the turbulent contemporary world and its defense policies.

Sarah Chayes, a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy and Rule of Law program, discusses how cultural and technological shifts have fueled corruption -- and some explosive reactions to it. She will chart these trends from countries as diverse as Russia, Nigeria and the U.S.

Photo by Kaveh Sardari

Glennys Young is a Professor in the History Department and the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. In this lecture, Dr. Young considers the question of why the promise of Russia’s democratic transition at the end of Soviet Communism resulted in another form of authoritarian power centered in the person of Vladimir Putin. She looks at several prominent theories, including one she has been working on for an upcoming book, to bring into view the complexity of this question. After putting Putin himself into historical context, Dr. Young critiques how adherents of each theory define the political situation in Russia through how they approach and deal with the Russian and Soviet past.

Dr. Young's lecture was part of the Summer 2017 Master Teacher Workshop on “Coming to Terms with the Authoritarian Past in Europe and Russia”at the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies. This workshop was organized by UW's Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, the Center for West European Studies, and the Center for Global Studies in partnership with the Word Affairs Council.

James Felak is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Washington In "From the Habsburgs to Hitler and Stalin: How the Trauma of World War One Led Hungary into the Axis & Soviet Empires," Dr. Felak discusses how the enormous losses of land and Magyar population suffered by the Kingdom of Hungary due to the post-WWI Treaty of Trianon would shape much of the country's 20th century experience. Possessed by a desire to roll back the Treaty of Trianon's punitive stipulations, Hungary would find common cause with the Axis powers in WWII but eventually wind up behind the Iron Curtain no larger than it had been since the 1920 peace conference at the Grand Trianon Palace in Paris.

Dr. Felak's lecture was part of the Summer 2017 Master Teacher Workshop on “Coming to Terms with the Authoritarian Past in Europe and Russia”at the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies. This workshop was organized by UW's Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, the Center for West European Studies, and the Center for Global Studies in partnership with the Word Affairs Council.

Justin Lifflander moved to Moscow in the fall of 1987 with a degree in Soviet Studies and a desire to become a US intelligence officer. Things didn’t work out as he planned. He tells the story of the warming relations between the super powers – first from the perspective of an embassy driver, then as a missile inspector in the provincial town of Votkinsk. Thirty years later – still in Russia – career and family have given him a broad set of experiences that provide for a unique view of Russia’s relations with the rest of the world.

After his weapons inspector role, Lifflander worked as an executive for Hewlett-Packard Russia for twenty years. He then served as the business editor for the Moscow Times from 2010 to 2014 and authored several articles about Russian-American relations.

Robert Bedeski, Affiliate Professor at the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies, draws lessons from the life of Genghis Khan that provide insight into how states and societies form. In this lecture, Dr. Bedeski talks about his research and discusses what "The Secret History of the Mongols" can tell us about life and security today.

Dr. Bedeski's new book, "Genghis Khan – Sustaining Existence" is available to read via the UW ResearchWorks Archive, located here: https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/38457

Dr. Bedeski is an Adjunct and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria and an Affiliate Professor at the Jackson School of International Studies.

Sergey Golubok is an attorney based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since 2011, he has been representing parties in cases heard before the Russian courts, including the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, and before courts in Belarus, European Court of Human Rights, Committee against Torture, and Human Rights Committee. In addition to representing applicants in the proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights, he also acts for the authors of communications lodged against various States (including Russia, Belarus, and Sri Lanka) with the UN human rights treaty bodies, such as the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture, as well as the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council.

Dr. Golubok writes extensively on topical issues of international human rights law and international criminal law in both English and Russian and comments on legal issues of public significance for leading Russian periodicals and TV channels.

The presidency of Donald Trump has vast implications for international affairs and even the internal politics of other countries — it could lead to geopolitical realignments on a global scale.

In response, the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington has launched a class on “Trump in the World: International Implications of the Trump Presidency.” This lecture by Scott Radnitz focuses on Russia.

Scott Radnitz is Director of the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington.