Join us for a meeting of the New York-Russia Public Policy Series, co-hosted by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and the New York University Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia.
Register for the webinar. Watch on YouTube.
For many months, the world’s attention has been focused on Ukraine’s efforts to liberate its territories occupied by Russia. Our panel of political scientists and military experts will take stock of Ukraine’s recent achievements and discuss the prospects of the war: How does the summer counteroffensive change the balance on the battlefield? What should we expect in 2024? How effective has Western military aid to Ukraine been so far? Does the current state of the war change the calculus for Western policymakers, and how can we ensure continuing support for Ukraine and its military?
SPEAKERS
Stephen Biddle is Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, a member of the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and Adjunct Senior Fellow for Defense Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Volodymyr Dubovyk, Head Research Fellow at the Department of Political Culture and Ideology, Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Science of Ukraine; Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna; Associate at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University
Alexandra Chinchilla, Assistant Professor of International Affairs at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service
Michael Kofman, Research Program Director in the Russia Studies Program at CNA; Fellow at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center
Moderated by:
Alexander Cooley, Claire Tow Professor of Political Science, Barnard College
Joshua Tucker, Director of the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at New York University
BIOGRAPHIES
Stephen Biddle is Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, a member of the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and Adjunct Senior Fellow for Defense Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has served on the Defense Department’s Defense Policy Board, on General David Petraeus’ Joint Strategic Assessment Team in Baghdad in 2007, as a Senior Advisor to the Central Command Assessment Team in Washington in 2008-9, as a member of General Stanley McChrystal’s Initial Strategic Assessment Team in Kabul in 2009, and on a variety of other government advisory panels and analytical teams. Biddle lectures regularly at the U.S. Army War College and other military schools, and has presented testimony before congressional committees on issues relating to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria; force planning; conventional net assessment; and European arms control. His book Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle (Princeton University Press, 2004) won four prizes, including the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Award Silver Medal for 2005, and the 2005 Huntington Prize from the Harvard University Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. Before joining the Columbia faculty in the fall of 2018, Biddle was Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University, and has held the Elihu Root chair in military studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) and the Roger Hertog Senior Fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations. He co-directs the Columbia University Summer Workshop on the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy (SWAMOS), and has held held teaching and research positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), and Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (BCSIA). Biddle was awarded the U.S. Army Superior Civilian Service Medal in 2003 and 2006, and was presented with the U.S. Army Commander’s Award for Public Service in Baghdad in 2007. He holds AB, MPP, and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University.
Volodymyr Dubovyk is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Center for International Studies at the Odesa I. Mechnikov National University. Among his teaching and research interests are U.S. foreign policy, US-Ukraine relations, Black Sea regional security, and the foreign policy of Ukraine. He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow with the Democratic Resilience Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and a member of the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia. Dubovyk has been a Fulbright Scholar, a Fellow at the Kennan Institute, and a Visiting Fellow at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland. He has a Ph.D. (Kandidat) degree in International Relations/Political Science from the Odesa I. Mechnikov National University.
Alexandra Chinchilla is an Assistant Professor of International Affairs at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service. Previously, she was a Rosenwald Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security and a Niehaus Postdoctoral Fellow at The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. Chinchilla studies how powerful states use security cooperation tools, such as military advisors and arms transfers, to increase their influence and control over allies, partners, and proxies. Her broader research agenda studies the effectiveness of security cooperation in deterring adversaries, preparing to fight with allies, as well as shaping the domestic politics and militaries of its recipients. She has been studying these topics in the context of NATO, Russia, and Ukraine for nearly a decade. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 2021.
Michael Kofman serves as Research Program Director in the Russia Studies Program at CNA and as a Fellow at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, DC. His research focuses on the Russia and the former Soviet Union, specializing in Russian armed forces, military thought, capabilities, and strategy. Previously, he served as a Program Manager and subject matter expert at National Defense University, advising senior military and government officials on issues in Russia and Eurasia. Mr. Kofman is also a Senior Editor at War on the Rocks, where he regularly authors articles on strategy, the Russian military, Russian decision-making, and related foreign policy issues. Mr. Kofman has published numerous articles on the Russian armed forces, security issues in Russia/Eurasia, and analyses for the US government. He holds an MA in International Security from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
