Russia-Ukraine dialogues: taking the pulse

As we approach February 2024, marking two years since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war, the full-scale invasion has defied many predictions by experts. Simultaneously, the war offers a myriad of lessons for scholars in international relations, military theory, economics, history, and various other social sciences. During the panel discussion, experts delved into how the war has metamorphosed Ukraine and Russia since the February 2022 escalation, examining its impact on the immediate region and the broader global order. Furthermore, panelists gazed into the future, contemplating what to anticipate in 2024 and beyond. The key questions explored included: What transpired? What is the current situation? And, most importantly, where are we heading? 

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This webinar was held on Tuesday 16 January 2024.

Meet the speakers and chair

Michael Cox is a Founding Director of LSE IDEAS. He was Director of LSE IDEAS between 2008 and 2019. He was appointed to a Chair at the LSE in 2002, having previously held positions in the UK at The Queen's University of Belfast and the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth. He helped establish the Cold War Studies Centre at LSE in 2004 and later co-founded LSE IDEAS in 2008 with Arne Westad. Professor Cox has lectured to universities world-wide as well as to several government bodies and many private companies. He has also served as Chair of the United States Discussion Group at Chatham House, as Senior Fellow at the Nobel Institute in Oslo; as Visiting Professor at the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies in Canberra, Australia, and as Chair of the European Consortium for Political Research. He is currently visiting professor at the Catholic University in Milan.

Nathalie Tocci (@NathalieTocci) is Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, part-time professor at the School of Transnational Governance (European University Institute), Honorary Professor at the University of Tübingen and independent non-executive director of Acea. She has been Special Advisor to EU High Representatives Federica Mogherini and Josep Borrell. In that capacity, she wrote the European Global Strategy and worked on its implementation. She is Europe’s Futures fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, IWM). She was Pierre Keller Visiting Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and, prior to joining Acea, she was independent board member first of Edison and then of Eni. She has held research positions at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, the Transatlantic Academy, Washington, the European University Institute, Florence, and has taught at the College of Europe, Bruges. Her research interests include European integration and European foreign policy, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, transatlantic relations, multilateralism, conflict resolution, energy, climate and defence. Her major publications include: Framing the EU's Global Strategy, Springer-Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 (author); The EU, Promoting Regional Integration, and Conflict Resolution, Springer-Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 (co-editor); Turkey and the European Union, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 (co-author); Multilateralism in the 21st Century, Routledge, 2013 (co-editor), Turkey’s European Future: Behind the Scenes of America’s Influence on EU-Turkey Relations, New York University Press, 2011 (author); and The EU and Conflict Resolution, Routledge, 2007 (author). Her new book, A Green and Global Europe will be published by Polity in October 2022. Nathalie is a frequent media commentator, with regular op-eds in Politico Europe and La Stampa, as well as being a regular panellist on BBC’s “The Context”. She has published in Foreign Affairs, El Pais, Project Syndicate, and is often interviewed by major international television and newspaper outlets, including Al Jazeera, BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Euronews, PBS, Sky, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, El Pais, The Guardian, Le Monde, Deutsche Welle, amongst others. She is represented by Chartwell Speakers and Elastica.

Dr. Tamara Krawchenko (@T_Krawchenko) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria, Assistant Director of UVic’s Institute for Integrated Energy Systems and Chair of the Local Governance Hub. She is an expert in comparative public policy and territorial development and has led international programmes of research on sustainability transitions, regional/rural/urban development and multi level governance, Indigenous economies, transportation and infrastructure governance and the governance of land use.

Leon Hartwell (@LeonHartwell) is a Senior Associate at LSE IDEAS and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington DC. His research interests include conflict resolution, genocide, diplomacy, democracy, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Western Balkans. Previously, Hartwell was the Senior Advisor of the Central and South-East Europe Programme (CSEEP) and the 2022 Sotirov Fellow at LSE IDEAS, and CEPA’s Acting Director of the Transatlantic Leadership Program.  From 2012 to 2013, he was also the Senior Policy Advisor for Political and Development Cooperation at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Zimbabwe, where his work included government and civil society engagement, political reporting, peace building projects, and supporting human rights defenders. In 2019, Hartwell completed a joint doctoral degree summa cum laude at Leipzig University (Germany) and Stellenbosch University (South Africa). His thesis analyzed the use of mediation in the resolution of armed conflicts. Hartwell has published extensively in professional scholarly outlets and mainstream media ranging from the Negotiation Journal (Harvard-MIT-Tufts) and Oxford University Press to War on The Rocks. He speaks Afrikaans, English, Dutch, and Latvian, which he studied at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute.