Fpri Events

Geopolitics with GranieriJanuary 12, 2016Join us for a conversation with FPRI Senior Fellow Sean Yom, as he explores the geopolitics of authoritarianism and the implications for the Middle East in the 21st century. In his new book, From Resilience to Revolution: How Foreign Interventions Destabilize the Middle East, Yom builds on a comparative historical analysis of Iran, Jordan, and Kuwait, and analyzes the the role played by foreign powers in the construction and durability of autocratic states in the Middle East. Yom is assistant professor of political science at Temple University, where he focuses on the dynamics and effects of authoritarianism, democracy, and U.S. foreign policy.

A region two-thirds the size of the United States, the Russian Far East possesses enormous natural wealth and a vital strategic location on the north Pacific, where the interests of several major powers – China, Japan, the Koreas and the United States – intersect. The RFE also fronts on the Arctic Ocean, another key theater of emerging geopolitical competition, controlling the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route. The Ukraine crisis and the West’s economic disengagement from Russia seem likely to increase China’s influence in the RFE and in East Asia generally, with important potential consequences for the regional security balance. Is a Russia-China alliance a chimera or a reality? Is Russia moving into China’s economic orbit? Is collaboration still possible between Russia and the US? These are the questions that Artyom Lukin and Rens Lee address in their new book Russia’s Far East: New Dynamics in Asia Pacific and Beyond, the product of a unique collaboration between an American and a Russian scholar.

We are pleased to sponsor the return to our podium of Adam Garfinkle, this time in his role as a Fox Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. A former speechwriter for Secretary of State Colin Powell, he has also been editor of The National Interest and has taught at the School for Advanced International Studies, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Haverford College. His blog “The Middle East and Beyond” appears on The American Interest website and he writes regularly for FPRI.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks, the crash of the Russian airliner, and the bombings in Beirut. In his new critically acclaimed book The ISIS Apocalypse, Will McCants writes: “We’re used to thinking of al-Qaeda’s former leader Osama bin Laden as the baddest of the bad, but the Islamic State is worse.” What drives ISIS? What are its origins? Who are its leaders? How have they come so far? To answer these questions, we featured Will McCants, director of the Brookings Institution Project on US Relations with the Islamic World.

In a relatively short time, ISIS has come to dominate the global jihadi arena, boasting its own state that incorporates parts of Syria and Iraq, while spurring offshoots elsewhere in the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia and withstanding a sustain aerial campaign. FPRI’s Clint Watts has studied its strengths and vulnerabilities, and in this talk offers his ideas on how best to defeat ISIS.

In this talk, Lorenzo Vidino will examine the different ways governments have attempted to counter radicalization, assess the weaknesses and strengths of these approaches, and offer his own suggestions to counter extremism — including the nonviolent forms of extremism that may be precursors or facilitators of violent extremism. An expert on Islamism in Europe and North America, Vidino has focused for the past 15 years on the mobilization dynamics of jihadist networks in the West; governmental counter-radicalization policies; and the activities of Muslim Brotherhood-inspired organizations in the West. A native of Italy who holds American citizenship, Vidino earned a law degree from the University of Milan Law School and a doctorate in international relations from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He has held positions at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the RAND Corporation, and the Center for Security Studies (ETH Zurich). Vidino’s most prominent