Memory Wars as the New Reality

The United Nations emerged from the ashes of the worst war in human history to preserve global peace. Seventy-five years later, though the UN remains a leading global institution, there is increasing talk of it being in crisis and the necessity of reform. Can the UN return to relevancy amid the geopolitical realities of the 21st century? Here’s Yale University Professor Thomas Graham and Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky with their insights.

When the Cold War ended, Russia joining a Greater Europe only seemed natural. Thirty years later, this idea has vanished without a trace. It is not that Russia’s participation in Europe has become irrelevant. Rather, Europeans are worried about the survival of the European Union project. What is in store for Russia-EU relations in a world increasingly dominated by Sino-American confrontation? What remains of the expectations of 1989? Here’s Timofei Bordachev, academic supervisor for the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics, with his analysis.

There’s a common joke that Russia is a country with an unpredictable past because it rewrites history to fit the present. Paradoxically, this joke is now becoming relevant for much of the world as well. What does the battle for history mean for the present and future? And where will memory wars lead us? Here’s Alexei Miller, Professor of the European University at St. Petersburg, and Thomas Sherlock, Professor at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, on the politics of history and memory.

At the end of the 20th century, liberal democracy appeared to triumph. History as a story of political evolution was over. But today, many point to a crisis of liberal democracy and fret over whether liberal democratic has enough dynamism to shine again. Why has such a promising beginning turned into such a whimpering finale? Is liberal democracy really at an end? We asked Ivan Krastev, a leading researcher at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, for his thoughts.

Just ten years ago, pundits predicted that a future Sino-American G2 would govern the world. Today, the relations between Beijing and Washington is more often described as Cold War 2.0. The disappearance of Chimerica—a symbiosis of China and America--represents, in fact, the ongoing crisis of globalization since the end of the 20th century. What does the U.S.-China confrontation mean for Russia? Will Moscow take sides? Or will it be able to skillfully maneuver between the two powers? We discuss these issues with Ivan Safranchuk, Associate Professor of MGIMO University, and Vassily Kashin, a leading researcher at the Higher School of Economics.

The era of universalism is receding; the time of fragmentation and selfishness has arrived. Nationalism, in the broad sense, has returned. This worldview is already widespread, and the COVID-19 pandemic has normalized it. What does international cooperation look like during the triumph of national interests? Is it possible to realize these interests without interaction? We turned to Andrei Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, and Anatol Lieven, Professor of Georgetown University in Qatar for their insight. Geopolitics on the Move is a podcast series hosted by Sean Guillory (SRB Podcast) and Fyodor Lukyanov (Russia in Global Affairs). Geopolitics on the Move is produced by Russia in Global Affairs, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Graduate Initiative in Russian Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and the Center for Russian, Eastern European, & Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. The Carnegie Corporation of New York provided funding.