CGSR Seminar: Where is Putin taking Russia? Implications for US Foreign Policy
Presented by Dr. Thomas E. Graham

Thursday, November 14, 2013

"Since he rose to power over a decade ago, Russian President Putin has striven to reassert Russia as a great power. His recent initiative on Syria has put it back on center stage, at least in the Middle East. But Russia's slowing economic growth and a range of foreign policy challenges raise questions about its future as a great power. What does Putin's Russia need to do domestically and abroad to fulfill its great-power ambitions? And can it succeed?"

Thomas Graham, a Managing Director, joined Kissinger Associates, Inc., in 2007. He was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia on the National Security Council Staff from March 2004-February 2007 and Director for Russian Affairs on the National Security Council Staff from June 2002-February 2004. From August 2001-May 2002, he served as the Associate Director of the Policy Planning Staff of the Department of State. From 1998-2001, Mr. Graham was a senior associate in the Russia/Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. During this period, he was a frequent commentator on Russian affairs and U.S.-Russian relations. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, and in European and Russian publications.

From 1984-1998, he was a Foreign Service Officer. His assignments included two tours of duty at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, where he served as head of the political/internal unit and acting political counselor. Between tours in Moscow, he worked on Russian and Soviet affairs on the Policy Planning Staff of the Department of State and as a policy assistant in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. He is the author of Russia's Decline and Uncertain Recovery (2002) and co-author of U.S.-Russian Relations at the Turn of the Century (2000). Mr. Graham received a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University and a B.A. in Russian studies from Yale University.