2023 CIUS Annual Shevchenko Lecture: The Russia-Ukraine war: Roots and geopolitical context

CIUS’s Annual Shevchenko Lecture, established in 1966, was conceived as a forum for important intellectual discussions concerning Ukrainian history, nation-building, language, literature, culture, and identity. It is the institute’s most eminent and oldest invited lecture, attesting to its long-standing commitment to building and disseminating knowledge about Ukraine and Ukrainians in the world. This year’s guest speaker is retired Lt Col Alexander Vindman, currently a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, a Pritzker Military Fellow at the Lawfare Institute, an executive board member of the Renew Democracy Initiative, and a senior advisor for VoteVets.

In this lecture, Alexander Vindman will provide an analysis of the roots of the Russia-Ukraine war and an examination of its geopolitical context. The lecture will encompass the period from 1991 to the present and include a discussion on the implications of the war for the next decade(s).