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ieReS
INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN, RUSSIAN, AND EURASIAN STUDIES
The 2009-10 academic year was transformational for the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian
Studies (IERES). The institute launched a major expansion of its capacity to promote understanding of
Europe and Eurasia among faculty, students, policymakers, the greater Washington community, and
experts around the world.
PoNARS eURASiA
The institute secured grant support of more than
$860,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New
York to bring the Program on New Approaches to
Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia)
to IERES. In doing so, IERES became the center of
an international network of more than 60 social
scientists promoting scholarly work and policy
engagement on transnational and comparative
topics in Eurasia. In 2009-10, this enabled IERES to:
Bring together 30 PONARS Eurasia members at
GW for the 2009 Annual PONARS Eurasia Policy
Conference, an event attended by some 200
members of the Washington policymaking, scholarly,
media, and student communities;
Host the Washington Workshop, which brought
together leading American and Eurasian experts
and Washington-based policymakers and analysts
for an in-depth, day-long discussion of issues related
to democratization in the former Soviet Union;
Arrange a high-level dinner to celebrate PONARS
Eurasia’s move to GW, featuring an off-the-record
discussion with Michael McFaul, President Obama’s
main advisor on Russia/Eurasia and a former
PONARS member; and
A February 2010 PONARS Eurasia event entitled “Beyond the Orange
Revolution: Does Ukraine’s Democracy Matter?”
Organize a Eurasia Workshop in Odessa, Ukraine
for leading specialists to share their work and build
professional relationships among academics and
specialists in Ukraine.
President Zeljko Komšic, chairman and Croat
member of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s tripartite
presidency, speaks at an October 2009 IERES event.
A PoWeRFUL PLATFoRM FoR UNDeRSTANDiNG
AN iMPoRTANT ReGioN
IERES hosted 39 events in 2009-10, reinforcing its
importance as a leading center for discussion and
debate on regional issues. Events included an address
by the President of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a lecture
by Georgia’s Minister for Reintegration on Georgia’s
new state strategy toward Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, a panel discussion by top experts on the
uprising in Kyrgyzstan, and a
research workshop examining
Ukraine’s 2010 presidential elections.
In one unique event, the lead
singer of the Russian rock group
Mummy-Troll, Ilya Lagutenko,
discussed his work to save the
Siberian tiger from extinction.
Another event featured a
screening of a film on the
Abkhazian and South Ossetian
conflicts, followed by a discussion
with the director. Susan Linz of
Michigan State University delivered
the Third Annual James Millar Lecture on Russian/
Soviet Economics.
A LeADeR iN THe STUDY oF THe CoLD WAR
In 2009-10, IERES built on its reputation as a leader
in the study of Cold War history through its faculty
publications and an unparalleled series of events
engaging the world community of emerging and
established scholars. These events included: the
2010 International Graduate Student Cold War
Conference; the annual workshop on Conducting
Research Using the Freedom of Information Act;
and the week-long Summer Institute on Conducting
Archival Research (SICAR).
In addition to these programs, IERES also organized
a number of talks by leading historians of the Cold
War, including Stephen Kotkin of Princeton University,
who discussed the role of civil society in the demise
of communism. In another event, Temple University’s
Vladislav Zubok presented his new book, Zhivago’s
Children, about a key generation of Russian
intellectuals. In Fall 2009, IERES collaborated with the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in
a series of activities to mark the 20th anniversary of
the fall of the Berlin Wall.
PATH-BReAkiNG SCHoLARSHiP
The 2009-10 academic year was a banner year
for IERES faculty scholarly work, with more than 50
publications, dozens of presentations at prominent
venues worldwide, and high-profile media
appearances, including Professor Scheherazade
Rehman’s two appearances on the Colbert Report.
Highlights include:
Daina S. eglitis and Tana Lace, “Stratification and
the Poverty of Progress in Post-Communist Latvia,”
Acta Sociologica (December 2009)
Laura C. engel, New State Formations in
Educational Policy: Reflections from Spain (Sense
Publishers, 2009)
IERES Director Henry E. Hale
James M. Goldgeier, “The Future of NATO,”
A Council on Foreign Relations Special Report
(February 2010)
Henry e. Hale and Timothy J. Colton, “The Putin
Vote: Presidential Electorates in a Hybrid Regime,”
Slavic Review (Fall 2009)
Henry e. Hale, Richard Sakwa, and Stephen White
(eds.) Developments in Russian Politics 7 (Palgrave
Macmillan and Duke University Press, 2010)
Peter Rollberg, The A to Z of Russian and Soviet
Cinema (Scarecrow Press/Rowman & Littlefield,
2010)
Cory Welt, “The Thawing of a Frozen Conflict:
The Internal Security Dilemma and the 2004 Prelude
to the Russo-Georgian War,” Europe-Asia Studies
(January 2010)
Sharon L. Wolchik and Marilyn Rueschemeyer,
(eds.) Women in Power in Post-Communist
Parliaments (Indiana University Press and Woodrow
Wilson Center Press, 2009)
IERES augmented its scholarly community in 2009-
10. It added five GW faculty members as new IERES
associates, hosted 20 visiting scholars from nine
countries doing research on Europe/Eurasia, and
created three post-doctoral fellowships in European
and Eurasian studies.
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