Regime Change and the Geopolitics of East Europe and Eurasia

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

The collapse of the Leninist regime in the Soviet Union brought an end to the Cold War and sparked dramatic changes in the main drivers of global and regional security. In the decades since, Western support for democratic regime building in the post-communist region has been countered by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s effort to build a network of Russian client states, using both economic pressure and military coercion. Now a major shift in U.S. foreign policy strategy under President Donald Trump is shaking up old assumptions about the cohesion of longstanding Western alliances and collective security goals in East Europe and Eurasia. This panel brings together prominent experts to discuss the general patterns that have emerged in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras concerning the links between regime change and international relations, within the region and more broadly. We will examine topics such as the potential for new power vacuums to arise in East-Central Europe, the future of Russian foreign policy in the late Putin era, new forms of great power competition in East Europe and Eurasia, and the prospects for Ukrainian sovereignty in the decades ahead.The panelists are all experienced commentators on the rapidly changing political situation in our region, and the roundtable format will allow us to respond in real time to the latest geopolitical changes affecting our subject matter.

Sub Unit

• International Relations, Security Studies, Foreign Policy

Chair

• Mariya Y Omelicheva, National Defense U

Roundtable Speakers

• Stephen Earl Hanson, College of William & Mary

• Brian D. Taylor, Syracuse U

• Celeste Ann Wallander, Penn Washington