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Breaking Barriers in United States-Russia Relations

The Power and Promise of Citizen Diplomacy

Irina Zvyagelskaya Elie Peltz Vitaly Naumkin Yuri Shafranik

9781945577437
283 pages
Kettering Foundation Press
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Overview
The first meeting of what would come to be known as the Dartmouth Conference took place in 1960 at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Despite the volatile stand-off between the two superpowers, the meeting of citizens from both countries was held with the explicit support of both President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Chairman Nikita Khrushchev. Sixty years later, the Dartmouth Conference is established as the longest continuous bilateral dialogue between citizens of the Soviet Union/Russia and the United States. Over the course of six decades, the Dartmouth Conference has brought together leading citizens from the two countries to candidly discuss a full range of issues affecting the US-Russia relationship, from political and economic considerations to arms control and the role of the two countries in regional conflicts.

Philip Stewart has participated in 120 of the 148 sessions of the Dartmouth Conference. In this book, he recounts how the Dartmouth talks have expanded international policy options, weathered world crises, and evolved into an ambitious exploration of how relations between civil societies in the United States and Russia might help build a more peaceful world.

About Kettering Foundation

The Kettering Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. Kettering’s primary research question is: What does it take to make democracy work as it should? Kettering’s research is distinctive because it is conducted from the perspective of citizens and focuses on what people can do collectively to address problems affecting their lives, their communities, and their nation. For more information about Kettering research and publications, see the Kettering Foundation’s website at www.kettering.org.
Author Bio
Irina Zvyagelskaya is head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences. She is also a chief research associate at the Institute of Oriental Studies and a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations under the Russian Foreign Ministry (MGIMO). Zvyagelskaya’s areas of expertise include con- temporary history, conflicts, international relations, and security issues in the Middle East and Central Asia. Zvyagelskaya is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She has authored over 250 publications, including books, chapters, and articles. Elie Peltz is a JD candidate at Columbia Law School. Following undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, he spent two years in the Kettering Foundation’s Washington, DC, office. In that capacity, he had the privilege of working under the mentorship of Harold Saunders and supporting the programming of the Dartmouth Conference. From 2016-2018, Peltz served as an aide to US Congressperson Jerrold Nadler, contributing to both Nadler’s foreign policy portfolio and local community engagement efforts. Vitaly Naumkin is president of the Institute of Oriental Studies and chair of the Moscow State University. He has been a visiting professor at the American University in Cairo and the University of California, Berkeley; served as Ambassador of Good Will for the UN Alliance of Civilizations and senior political advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria; and cochaired the Dartmouth dialogue, its Regional Task Force, the US-Russia Inter-Tajik dialogue, and the Nagorno-Karabakh dialogue. Naumkin is a member of the Scientific Council under the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia and received the State Award for his achievements in science. He is the author of more than 500 publications on topics ranging from international conflict management to linguistics. Yuri Shafranik, as Tyumen governor, began his engagement with the United States as early as 1992. After convening the first US-Russian forum among officials, he was one of the initiators and “engines” in the Gore-Chernomydrin Commission. In this role, Shafranik was critical to the design and, ultimately, adoption of the law on production sharing, which made possible highly successful international energy projects such as Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2. From the time Shafranik founded the SNG Group in 2000, it has completed projects ranging from oil and gas exploration and production to provision of oil and gas field services and construction in over 20 countries. Shafranik’s cultural and social work is conducted through his World Politics and Resources Foundation. David Mathews, president and CEO of the Kettering Foundation, was secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Ford administration and, before that, president of the University of Alabama. Mathews has written extensively on Southern history, public policy, education, and international problem solving. His books include Politics for People: Finding a Responsible Public Voice, The Ecology of Democracy: Finding Ways to Have a Stronger Hand in Shaping Our Future, and With the People: An Introduction to an Idea. Philip D. Stewart has been director of the US-Russia Dartmouth Conference since 1972 and has participated in 104 of the 148 sessions of the conference. Stewart is a professor emeritus of political science at the Ohio State University where he taught from 1964 to 1990. From 1990 to the end of 2001, he was General Manager of Kellogg Latvia, serving markets throughout the former Soviet Union. Since 2002, Stewart has been a Senior Associate at the Kettering Foundation. As a professor, Stewart received numerous grants and awards, including a Fulbright-Hays fellowship and a MacArthur Foundation grant.

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