BRUCE PARROTT, Ph.D., Columbia University
Professor and Director of Russian and Eurasian Studies Dr. Parrott is author of Russia and the New States of Eurasia: The Politics of Upheaval (1994); The Soviet Union and Ballistic Missile Defense (1987); and Politics and Technology in the Soviet Union (1983). His edited publications include: The Consolidation of Democracy in East Central Europe (1997); Politics, Power, and the Struggle for Democracy in South-East Europe (1997); Democratic Changes and Authoritarian Reactions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova (1997); Conflict, Cleavage, and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus (1997); The End of Empire? The Transformation of the USSR in Comparative Perspective (1996); State-Building and Military Power in Russia and the New States of Eurasia (1995); and The Dynamics of Soviet Defense Policy (1990).His current research interests center on post-Soviet state-formation, the impact of nationalism on postcommunist political development, and changing conceptions of national history in the post-Soviet states.
CHARLES GATI, Ph.D., Indiana University
Senior Adjunct Professor of European Studies Dr. Gati has been a member of the faculty at Columbia University and Union College. He has written widely on Soviet American relations and the Cold War. In the early 1990s he served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State. His publications include Blue-Collar Workers In Eastern Europe (1981), Hungary and the Soviet Bloc (1986), and The Bloc that Failed: Soviet-East European Relations in Transition (1990).
ANDREW KUCHINS, PhD., SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
Professorial Lecturer Dr. Kuchins is a SAIS alumnus with the expertise in Russia and the former Soviet Union. He is currently the Director and Senior Fellow at the Russia and Eurasia Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Formerly a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International peace and director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, Dr. Kuchins is an expert in Russian foreign and security policy, Russian domestic politics, Russian energy policy, and U.S.-Russia relations. His publications include: Alternative Futures for Russia to 2017 (2007); U.S.-Russia Relations: The Case for an Upgrade (with Vyacheslav Nikonov and Dmitri Trenin) (2005). In addition, Dr. Kuchins served as editor and co-editor for four other volumes; and authored dozens of articles and op-eds in leading journals and newspapers in the U.S. and Russia.
BRANKO MILANOVIC, Ph.D., Belgrade University
Professorial Lecturer Dr. Milanovic is Principal Economist in the Research Department of the World Bank. He works on issues of income distribution, poverty, and the social safety net, primarily in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He has served as the World Bank's country economist for Poland and for Turkey. Dr. Milanovic is author of Income, Inequality and Poverty during the Transition from Planned to Market Economy (1998); Liberalization and Entrepreneurship: Dynamics of Reform in Socialism and Capitalism (1989, 1993); "Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy in Transition Economies," in Bartek Kaminski (ed.), Economic Transformation in Russia and the New States of Eurasia (1996); and "Explaining the Increase in Inequality during the Transition," Economics of Transition, May 1999. He is editor of Transition from Socialism in Eastern Europe: Domestic Restructuring and Foreign Trade (1992).
S. FREDERICK STARR, Ph.D., Princeton University
Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, SAIS Dr. Starr has been involved with Russian and Eurasian affairs for over thirty years as a scholar, teacher, and manager of cultural and economic enterprises. After teaching as an associate professor of history at Princeton, he became the founding secretary of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Smithsonian Institution. He served as president of Oberlin College for eleven years and as vice-president of Tulane University for four years. His research focuses on the rise of pluralistic and voluntary elements in modern societies, the interplay between foreign and domestic policy, and the relationship between politics and culture.
Dr. Starr has written or edited 18 books. His publications include Decentralization and Self-Government in Russia, 1830-1870 (1972), Red and Hot: The Fate of Jazz in the Soviet Union, 1917-1980 (1985), and The Legacy of History in Russia and the New States of Eurasia (1994). He is also a professional jazz musician whose New Orleans-based Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble has performed throughout the world and has issued many well-received recordings.
SONIA BEN OUAGRHAM, PhD., School of Advanced Social Sciences, France
Professorial Lecturer Dr. Ben Ouagrham is a senior research associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She is an editor-in-chief of the NIS Export Control Observer, a publication devoted to the analysis of export control issues of the weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. She is also involved into studying biological defense systems in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Dr. Ben Ouagrham earned her doctorate in Economics of Development in France. She is an author of “Conversion of Soviet Biological Weapons Facilities: Lessons Learned from a Case Study in Stepnogorsk, Kazakhstan” (2003), “Proliferation Threat from Former BW in the FSU” (in press), “A Cooperative Border Security System between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan” (2002), “Proliferation Threats from Central Asia and the Caucasus” (2002), “Central Asia: Why Do We Care?” (2001), “The Anatomy of the Russian Conversion” (2001), and many other articles. In addition to her native French, she is fluent in Russian, English and Arabic.
MARC ZLOTNIK, PhD., University of Chicago
Professorial Lecturer Dr. Zlotnik earned his PhD in Russian History and has worked for several government entities, including as a Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council and most recently, at the CIA. He authored studies on a broad range of issues, including Russian national security, Russia’s long-term prospects, leadership politics, Ukrainian domestic politics, and Russia’s regions. Dr. Zlotnik taught at George Washington University and worked as an analyst for Foreign Broadcast Information Service. A sample of his publications includes: “Yeltsin and Gorbachev: The Politics of Confrontation” (forthcoming), “Russia’s Elected Governors: A Force to be Reckoned With” (1997), “Rethinking Soviet Socialism: The Politics of Ideological Reform” (1990), “Chernenko Succeeds” (1984).
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