UC Anniversary - Reflections from our student Fellows
Kerri Matulis
When I arrived at my UC event, I thought it would be a number of lectures and presentations. I also thought that the UC would be more competitive, where students from each university would aim to prove their point at any cost. Instead, I found the UC to be an entire experience, and one of the highlights of my graduate school career. I thoroughly enjoyed the lectures, the simulation, and the individual presentations, as well as the many discussions shared amongst scholars, professors, and students. This experience is critical for anyone interested in Russia and the West, and especially for those committed to creating positive change in our relations.
I learned how to respond to opposing viewpoints. Those perspectives that I didn't understand made me question my own. I felt that the UC was a community as opposed to a competition amongst different viewpoints and was a place where scholars, professors, and students who truly care about Russia-West relations could freely talk about the hard questions.
The UC goes beyond any "training module." After almost three years, I think of my time at the UC with the fondest of memories. I am hopeful that this experience will only continue to grow and attract more scholars and students.
Nicole Grajewski
The UC’s mission is something that has always strongly resonated with me because of my own personal beliefs about the importance of a stable Euro-Atlantic security order and the maintenance of strategic stability. The history of sustained dialogue during the Cold War positively contributed to clarifying conceptual discrepancies and elucidating the superpowers’ respective positions in both regional and functional domains. However, I often find that the lessons of dialogue among various epistemic communities during the Cold War appear to have been forgotten or are treated as a relic of the past. This is precisely the reason that the UC’s mission of fostering mutual, inter-generational dialogue continues to be important. In this regard, the various negotiation workshops and simulations hosted by the UC were not only valuable in furthering the practical application of knowledge but also fostering greater understanding and respect for the other sides’ perspectives.
Moreover, I have made many close friends from the UC which has been one of my favorite parts about the program. The institutional contacts between the various universities are also something that I personally have found to be valuable and unique. The UC has certainly been a positive impact on my time at Oxford and my understanding of Russia-West relations.
I hope the UC evolves into a forum that addresses the deeper structural issues and diverging conceptual understandings to international and regional security. As fundamental changes in the nature of the international system necessitate thoughtful solutions, the UC should adapt to exploring alternative areas where dialogue and engagement would be conducive to peace and security. While a focus on traditional functional issues pertaining to arms control and disarmament remains important, discussions about emerging powers and regional conflicts with American, European, and Russian regional specialists may contribute to greater understandings of areas of cooperation.
Lisa Becker
Thinking about lessons learnt, I must admit, I sometimes catch myself citing the overarching guiding questions that Julie Newton and Alex Pravda raised at the beginning and the end of the module - namely "How did we get here?" and "Where do we go from here?" or "Chto delat'?".
I remember discussing the role of China in Russia-West relations and the difficulties for European countries to position themselves vis-à-vis growing US scepticism towards China. Hearing from both American and Russian fellows about their respective reservations and also the opportunities for cooperation they saw was very instructive and provided food-for-thought, even though our group could not reach a conclusive answer as to where to go from there. On other occasions, I was suprised that our extensive discussions on the purpose, goal and effectiveness of sanctions led the group to unexpected convergences around similar points of view.
I hope that UC will keep on doing what it does best - promoting dialogue between the three key regions, building a network of young experts and (maybe) future decision-makers that foster a strong interest in these issues, and dismatling dangerous misconceptions - especially in times like these. Maybe we will hear more voices from e.g. the Indo-Pacific and Africa, and see new formats arise. I am convinced that the core of the UC's mission, however, will remain strong with an ever-growing circle of fellows and experts.
Daniel Shapiro
I remember being very intimidated by the UC; there were a lot of very respectable people dressed up in suits at one of the nicest buildings in downtown London. This was my first big conference as a graduate student, and it was a little overwhelming at first. Even today, I still sometimes get star-struck; the UC manages to bring in a lot of excellent speakers and guests. But the UC means something a lot different to me now: some of my closest friends and colleagues have been made through the UC. I keep in touch with many UC fellows and professors and look forward to any opportunity to get involved again. I’ve written articles with a lot of them, relied on their help for my research, gotten job and fellowship tips through them, etc. These have been some of my most valuable partnerships. The UC has honestly been one of the most valuable experiences in my career, and I would recommend it to any young person looking to get involved in transatlantic relations.
I have learned that all sides in the relationship – the U.S., Russia and Europe – know full well what their interests are, and know the realities on the ground: states know what they’re doing. We can lobby and work to make things better, but trying to tell another state what is and isn’t in their interests is pointless.
I also remember talking about NATO expansion and involvement in Eastern Europe. One former British Defence Ministry official gave a presentation that appeared very tone-deaf to me, and just appeared to reinforce every negative association that Russians have with NATO. I remember walking away feeling that many people in older generations on all sides have really retained Cold War mindsets. It was this issue at this conference, actually, that inspired me to write my master’s thesis on how the younger generation of Russian experts conceptualizes the future of U.S.-Russian relations.
I really love the UC as it is – a small group of people, all of whom are very competent and will go on to have successful careers in the field. I hope that the UC continues not only to get diverse groups of people to their conferences and modules, but also manages to keep them involved in future events and in the network in general, even if, for example, they no longer go to a school covered by the Consortium. This last piece is a challenge, but I really am confident that the UC will continue to play an absolutely crucial role in developing the transatlantic-Eurasian relationship among younger experts. Some of my closest friends and colleagues have come from this organization, and I hope the same will be true for generations to come.
Anya Osetrova
I am currently working with eleven other UC Fellows at European Leadership Network, thanks to the opportunity shared with us by the University Consortium. It feels great to have so many coworkers with similar backgrounds and goals! Some others supported me invaluably both as friends and as experienced professionals on many occasions.
For all the future UC Fellows, or the people who are unsure if they want to commit to being one and are now googling what UC is:
Being a part of this community will be one of the most emotionally and professionally rewarding things in your life! My favorite thing about being a University Consortium alumna is the pride I feel for people I met through Consortium and their achievements. I swear, every time I go on LinkedIn I am awed and motivated by the incredible things they all are doing! University Consortium is a source for inspiration for me on many levels, and believe me, the Module will be just the start of your UC journey.
Nikita Gryazin
First, please receive my warmest congratulations on fifth anniversary of the University Consortium. This initiative does mean a lot to me. It changed me in some way I cannot properly describe. Perhaps, I became even more ‘open’ and ‘global’ than I could possibly imagine I would. I was never involved in such a wide-scale and cosmopolitan initiative like UC before my first UC event at Harvard University in March 2018. I remember very clearly this day when I was accepted to take part in this. All of a sudden, in a calm atmosphere during my office hours at HSE, I hear: ‘Nikita, there is an amazing initiative called UC and I think you are a good match for it, it is going to be at Harvard next month – would you like to go?’. To tell you the truth, there was no doubt in my head that this is exactly the turning point of my career in International Relations, a great start of something special. So, answering the question, I thought of the UC as a great networking initiative and a uniting project, a platform for a young scholars and future policy-makers like myself – and I was absolutely right. Perhaps, now it is even more than a platform for us, it is also a perfect intergenerational forum for uniting beginners like us and masters like Thomas Graham, Robert Legvold and so on.
Some of the most important lessons in my life I have learned while interacting with the UC team and UC fellows. The UC has pushed me to improve myself in the area of international relations studies, by giving me so many opportunities to talk with some the greatest scholars and some of the smartest students in the world. UC fellows simply showed me more than I could see: more and more perspectives, views, ideas, perceptions. Very quickly the UC has become my main networking platform. Many of them became my good friends. They have shaped my thinking and they influence my career for the better. Isn’t this the best thing for my professional life?
The only way to understand the situation is to listen to both sides, even if one side from our perspective is wrong, we must understand it too. The biggest mistakes in human history were made because of decision-makers’ unwillingness to know the other side’s perceptions. The more we know about others, the more we know how to live without conflicts. The UC experience showed me a full spectrum of ideas from Russians, Americans and Europeans, and that is amazing.
I like the UC as it is now, to be frank. I hope it will keep working hard to make our world a safer place by bringing students like us together to know each other more, as the UC network grows, both quantitatively and qualitatively. And I am always here to to do what I can to help the UC thrive.
Lev Sokolshchik
I would like to sincerely congratulate the Consortium. The UC today is a large scientific and educational project that brings together leading international researchers and young leaders in the international relations from the United States, Russia and Europe. The UC is a unique international platform that provides excellent opportunities for ambitious researchers and practitioners to improve their professional skills. Also the UC is an actively developing network of experts with the potential over time to contribute to solving some of the most significant problems of the contemporary world.
I strongly believe that to solve significant international problems, such as climate change, environmental pollution, the risk of world war, nonproliferation, terrorism, etc., we have to build a trust dialogue between Russia and the United States, and more broadly – deep cooperation within the international community. That is why the UC and projects like it play an important role in international relations.
Participation in the series of UC summer lectures with outstanding experts on US–Russian relations, Dmitry Trenin and Robert Legvold, was one of the most important experience of this year for me. Probably, one of the important points that influenced on my perception of the American side in bilateral relations was my interview with Dr. Thomas Graham, as a part of the UC Interview Series. He said: "There are the lessons that we have over the past decades. We need to pay more attention to history – history matters, culture matters, values matter". And I was once again convinced that a successful dialogue between the two countries is possible only with deep understanding of each other in different aspects – and not only in the dimensions of national interests and economics. It is extremely important to be able to hear a different point of view and the arguments for it.
Finally, for me in terms of professional development, relationships with UC experts and fellows are extremely important. The UC provides an opportunity for dialogue with the world leading researchers, analysts and practitioners of international relations. I try to maintain contacts with UC officials, UC fellows, and the expert board. Moreover, I would like to expand engagement with them by participating in new projects and events of the Consortium.
I think that the Consortium is still at the beginning of its long journey, so I hope that in the near future that it will expand the formats and scale of its educational projects and strengthen the research dimension. One idea would be to launch research projects for UC fellows on the most important international topics under guidance of the UC expert board. This would help us learn from each other and strengthen the UC as international scientific network.
Yulia Timofeeva
The UC is a project, with a strong educational dimension, uniting people from around the world. The UC provides an opportunity to make new friends and connections, learn new ideas, reflect upon controversial issues and get more inspired to move on with research. In the run-up to the module, I thought that the UC is a kind of conference, and one may say I was correct to some extent, but the UC is much more than a conference.
I learned at least two lessons. First, that asking questions and expressing opinion are the things we should do during such academic events. The subsequent conversations are interesting and help us to learn and develop. The second lesson, is that cultural exchanges really matter. Informal interactions, like those during dinners or our free time activities, tend to reveal more of what we have in common, which, in its turn, might improve understanding and the overall attitude to the country.
Engagement with the other’s side perspective is important at every level, from interpersonal communication to international relations. Blaming the other is definitely not a way out. EU-Russia (or US-Russia) relations have come under strain. However, there are more reasons for togetherness than for alienation. I’m confident that it’s important to discuss differences and exchange opinions in a frank manner to address both existing and potential problems or challenges.
Anna Davidson
When I arrived at my first event with the UC, I thought the UC was a convening talks with postgraduate students similar to myself who are interested in relationship between Russia and the West. I learned that the UC works towards much more than this by training fellows in different techniques to approach understanding this relationship and also works to cultivate the relationship itself by building connections between fellows from different areas and a basis for future collaboration and friendship through our careers.
Understanding the other sides’ perspectives sheds light on the sources of their actions towards my side which helps us formulate the most effective approach for engaging with them. Moreover, I’ve understood more deeply that there is not a single “other side,” but multiple levels of understanding and behaviour by those who are different from me.
My thinking about great power states, superpower states, and sovereign states has sharpened and enhanced my research and enabled me to distinguish these differences from Russia’s perspective. Dmitri Trenin said this year that the seeds of any crisis are usually planted in how the previous one ended, which shifted my view of current relations with Russia and, crucially, the importance of context. Although I knew context and historical legacies are important, I did not think to connect current crises with previous ones.
Marc Friedli
My major lesson learned is that there are biases everywhere, in my thinking as in the thinking of others. Being aware of this helps to remain patient, inquire further and arrive at having better academic as well as academic exchanges! I’m more curious about what others think and how they see things. Instead of taking things for granted, it is always good to ask twice and listen carefully.
Also, the freedom to think and discuss as we do in the UC is a privilege we do not enjoy once we enter government institutions and think tanks which, quickly, force us into their own agendas and narratives.
I hope the UC will become an ever-growing community, a well-connected alumni network. And as it does so, the UC could shift its mission: from a focus on rebuilding basic trust and understanding for one another, to more active brainstorming of new avenues for cooperation.
Hanna Notte
Reflecting on the UC´s role for next five years in the wake of the 2020 US presidential elections, I believe that the relevance of the UC will only grow in the coming years. Independent of any particular US president, fundamental issues and challenges in Russia-West relations will prevail, and fissures will possibly deepen. Those relate to arms control, the European security architecture, conflicts in third regions such as the Middle East, but also more fundamentally the nature of the emerging multipolar order. And there is little indication that mutually agreeable solutions can be found easily. Meanwhile, Russia's relations with key European countries are underdoing their own stress test, following the recent poisoning of Alexey Navalny, and in light of the meagre results of President Macron's own opening towards Russia.
Against this alarming backdrop, it is critical that the UC continue to expand its role, network, programs and reach over the coming five years. If contacts at the Track I level between Western countries and Russia further atrophy, it will become all the more important that a process of learning and listening about mutually held grievances and threat perceptions continues - and indeed intensifies - at the level of Track II contacts, academia, and in the educational sphere. In that process, it will also be crucial to strike the right balance between expanding the UC's reach to additional institutions and interlocutors, on the one hand, without "diluting" the strength and appeal of its core network and mission, on the other.
Thomas Brewis
The University Consortium has given me a chance to understand issues in great depth, meet new people and, now that I have started working, keep in touch with an area of study I enjoy. I have greatly enjoyed writing for the Consortium; it has helped me to improve my writing style and allowed me to express my thoughts. I have participated in and enjoyed many UC events, including the recent Corona Conversations which I liked a lot. I think the best event I attended, however, was the negotiation at the Oxford Module in 2019. The session itself was interesting, but the talk we received from the negotiating organisers was so insightful I keep their pocket negotiation guide in my wallet today. Unfortunately in the hierarchical world of the civil service where I currently work, their lessons have not been as useful as I had hoped. However, I think that the best talk I heard was actually from a student at my very first event in 2017 about the relationship between the Orthodox church and the Russian state. This talk fundamentally changed my view of how the Russian state functions and the differing goals of various actors within it. If there is anything I wish would change, I would like to see and hear even more specialists from the regions. Also, the fewer people saying 'things were better during the Cold War' the better!
Tinatin Japaridze
In the current era of tumultuous relations between Russia and the West, the University Consortium is in an historically unique position to serve as an effective mediator that shows that instead of further alienating Russia as a strategic partner from the rest of Europe and the U.S., we must work on devising norms of behavior and developing the habits of cooperation. The first step towards this otherwise far-fetched goal of trust-building is dialogue.
Being a UC Fellow was certainly one of the highlights of my time in academia—an experience that showed me the value of dialogue and the need to hear the opposing perspective, instead of solely preaching to the converted. It gives me a ray of hope that the next generation of leadership will learn from past mistakes - mistakes that demonstrate how building walls and Iron Curtains cannot possibly be the solution.
Eva Jovanova
I already had some idea about the UC, since the professor who nominated me and the previous UC Fellow from my university told me all about it. They both more or less told me: "It is a way to have some intellectual and cultural exchange, hearing both Russian and Western experts, however, arguments with Russian students can make it feel like a failure. Be prepared to argue with some of them!" I was so glad that this wasn't the case in my year.
When talking to the Russian UC fellows, I was surprised to notice that they were very critical at times of how the educational system would often burden them with unnecessary facts at the cost of developing critical thinking skills. Even though I had lived and studied in St. Petersburg in 2016 and this was vaguely familiar to me, I was really surprised.
I don't think I could pick just one pressing issue that we discussed, although the cleft in perceptions of (mainly) foreign policy between Russia and the West is worth noting. And luckily, even though one UC lecturer perfectly illustrated this issue, another was just around the corner to prove that, at least in academia, there is a multitude of different perceptions.
While I was working as a teaching assistant in Russian Foreign Policy at Georgetown, I would very often give examples that either UC lecturers used to illustrate an issue or I would find interesting materials for my students that I initially came across during or because of my UC module experience. I sincerely hope that there would be more opportunities to have other live events. Soon, I hope to see UC fellows in the role of UC lecturers as well!
