A Just Peace in Ukraine: Activist, Policy, and Scholarly Perspectives
Date and Time
Location
Panel Discussion with:
Oleksandra Romantsova, Executive Director of the Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian non-profit organization that was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022
Oxana Shevel, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Relations Program at Tufts University
Alexander S. Vindman, Former Director for European Affairs, responsible for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Russia, U.S. National Security Council (2018-2020) and current Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School
Moderated by Emily Channell-Justice, Director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University
Introductions by Vladyslav Wallace, Master in Public Policy (MPP) student at the Harvard Kennedy School and President of the HKS Ukraine Caucus student organization
In-Person and Online via Zoom Webinar (live). Registration is required to attend online.
Event Description
Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine has continued for over one and a half years. This panel combines activist, policy, and scholarly perspectives to explore the roots of Russia’s invasion, the developments of the war over the past 500 days, what might and might not bring a lasting peace, and how Russia can be held accountable for its crimes on Ukrainian soil.
About the Speakers
Oleksandra Romantsova, the Executive Director of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, has been a human rights defender with the Center since 2014. She has been the Executive Director since 2017. The Center was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. She now oversees the documentation of war crimes caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and conducts advocacy as part of the global initiative "Tribunal for Putin.” Previously, Oleksandra coordinated the mobile observation of human rights violations and war crimes in eastern Ukraine and monitored political persecution in occupied Crimea in response to the Russian invasion and annexation in 2014. She is also an active participant in field missions in the Kyiv region. Oleksandra holds three master’s degrees, in International Economics, Project Management, and Conflict Management and Mediation. [Link to web resource referenced during the event]
Dr. Oxana Shevel is an Associate Professor of comparative politic at Department of Political Science at Tufts University and Director of Tufts International Relations program. Her research and teaching focuses on the post-Soviet region, especially Ukraine and Russia, and issues such as nation building and identity politics, citizenship policies, memory politics, church-state relations, and democratization process in the post-Soviet region. She is a co-author (with Maria Popova) of the forthcoming book on the root causes of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States (Polity, 2023). Her earlier book, Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe (Cambridge, 2011) which examines how the politics of national identity and strategies of the UNHCR shape refugee admission policies in the post-Communist region, leading countries to be more or less receptive to refugees, won the American Association of Ukrainian Studies (AAUS) prize for best book in the fields of Ukrainian history, politics, language, literature and culture. Professor Shevel’s research has appeared in a variety of journals, including Comparative Politics, Current History, East European Politics and Societies, Europe-Asia Studies, Geopolitics, Journal of Democracy, Nationality Papers, Post-Soviet Affairs, Slavic Review and in edited volumes. Her policy commentary has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Just Security, Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and in other national and international media outlets. Outside of the department, Oxana Shevel serves as Vice President of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) and of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies (AAUS). She’s a country expert on Ukraine for Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT), a member of PONARS Eurasia scholarly networks, and a board member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTShA). She's also an associate of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Outside of academia, she has served as a consultant for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and for the US Department of State and has provided expert testimony on applications for asylum in US courts. Professor Shevel holds a PhD in Government from Harvard University, an M.Phil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge in England, and a BA in English and French from Kyiv State University in Ukraine. [Link to open source article referenced during the event]
Dr. Alexander Vindman, Lieutenant Colonel U.S. Army (Retired), was the director for European Affairs, responsible for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Russia on the White House’s National Security Council (2018-2020). Before that, he served at the Pentagon as the Political-Military Affairs Officer for Russia for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as an attaché at American Embassies in Moscow and Kyiv. While on the Joint Staff, he authored the U.S. National Military Strategy for Russia. He is a recipient of numerous awards including two Legions of Merit and the Purple Heart, having sustained wounds in a 2004 IED attack during the Iraq War. He earned his MA in Regional Studies – Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia (REECA) from Harvard University, where he currently serves as a Hauser Leader at the HKS Center for Public Leadership and his PhD from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he is currently a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute. Alex leads the national security think tank, the Institute for Informed American Leadership, is an executive board member for the Renew Democracy Initiative, a senior advisor for VoteVets, and the author of The New York Times bestselling memoir Here, Right Matters. He has also served as a fellow at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library and the Lawfare Institute. Alex frequently shares his expertise in appearances on NPR, MSNBC, and CNN, and he remains engaged with principal decision-makers in Washington and Kyiv. He is committed to the cause of transatlantic security and democracy and has traveled to Ukraine several times in wartime conditions. His consistently prescient analysis and assessments have made him a foremost analyst of national security challenges and policy best practices for the United States.
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This special event is organized by Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) as part of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program. It is co-sponsored by the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.
Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Megan Duncan Smith, HURI Programs Coordinator, at duncansmith@fas.harvard.edu at least two weeks in advance of the session.
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