Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

A distinctive
feature of social and
cultural life at CMC

 

Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order

Thu, October 14, 2021
Dinner Program
Kathryn Stoner

Too often, we are told that Russia plays a weak hand well. But, perhaps the nation’s cards are better than we know. Russia ranks significantly behind the U.S. and China by traditional measures of power: GDP, population size, over-all health, and military might. Yet 25 years removed from its mid-1990s nadir following the collapse of the USSR, Russia has become a supremely disruptive force in world politics. Kathryn Stoner, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, professor of political science (by courtesy) at Stanford University, and incoming Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law assesses the resurrection of Russia and argues for looking beyond traditional measures of power to assess Russia’s strength in global affairs. Accounting for how Russian domestic politics under Vladimir Putin influences its foreign policy, Stoner explains how Russia has battled its way back to international prominence. 

Kathryn Stoner is a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) at Stanford University. As of Sept. 15, 2021, she is the Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. She teaches in the department of political science at Stanford, and in the program on international relations, as well as in the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy Program. Prior to coming to Stanford in 2004, she was on the faculty at Princeton University for nine years, jointly appointed to the Department of Politics and the Princeton School for International and Public Affairs. 

In addition to many articles and book chapters on contemporary Russia, she is the author or co-editor of six books: "Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective," written and edited with Michael A. McFaul (Johns Hopkins 2013); "Autocracy and Democracy in the Post-Communist World," co-edited with Valerie Bunce and Michael A. McFaul (Cambridge, 2010); "Resisting the State: Reform and Retrenchment in Post-Soviet Russia" (Cambridge, 2006); "After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transitions" (Cambridge, 2004), coedited with Michael McFaul; and "Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional" Governance (Princeton, 1997). Her most recent book was published in 2021 entitled "Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order" (Oxford University Press). 

She received a B.A. (1988) and M.A. (1989) in political science from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University (1995). In 2016 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Iliad State University, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.

Professor Stoner's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at CMC.

Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

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