AUK Talks with Kurt Volker, Anne Applebaum and Radosław Sikorski _ September 8, 2023

The AUK Talks topic: “Will the West support a Ukrainian victory?"
About AUK Speakers:
Kurt Volker, Founding Partner of the American University Kyiv, is a leading expert in U.S. foreign and national security policy with over 35 years of experience in various government, academic, and private sector capacities. He served as U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations from 2017 to 2019 and as U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2008-2009. Ambassador Volker is President and Founder of Alliance Strategic Advisors, LLC, which provides strategic advice and services to a diverse range of business clients with interest in Central and Eastern Europe. In June 2020, Amb. Volker was named a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). From 2012-2019, Ambassador Volker was the founding Executive Director of The McCain Institute for International Leadership, a part of Arizona State University. He remains a Senior Advisor at the Atlantic Council; a Trustee of the American College of the Mediterranean in Aix-en-Provence, France; a Trustee of the Hungary Initiatives Foundation; a member of the GLOBSEC International Advisory Board; and a member of the International Advisory Board of the U.S. Institute for Peace.
Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, journalist and commentator on geopolitics, examines the challenges and opportunities of global political and economic change through the lenses of world history and the contemporary political landscape. Informed by her expertise in Europe and her years of international reporting, Applebaum shares perspectives on the far-reaching implications of today’s volatile world events. In July 2020, Penguin published Anne’s book “Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.” Anne was later named one of “The Top 50 Thinkers of the Covid-19 Age” by Prospect magazine. She is a Senior Fellow of International Affairs and Agora Fellow in Residence at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. Anne Applebaum is a staff writer at The Atlantic.
Radosław Sikorski is a senior statesman and acclaimed expert on geopolitics. In June 2019, he was elected as a member of the European Parliament. He is Chairman of the EU-US delegation for the Parliament. He is also a Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age (AIDA) and the Subcommittee on Security and Defense (SEDE). Radek was Poland’s Minister of Defence (2005-2007), Foreign Minister (2007-2014), and Speaker of Parliament (Marshall of the Sejm) (2014-2015). Together with Carl Bildt, he launched the EU Eastern Partnership. He negotiated and signed the Poland-Russia regional visa-free regime, Poland-U.S. missile defence agreement, and-together with foreign ministers of Germany and France-the accord between the pro-EU opposition and Ukrainian president in 2013. In his earlier career, he worked as a journalist for The Observer and The Spectator and in 1986 was a war correspondent in Afghanistan. In 1989, he reported on the conflict in Angola. Radek is the author of several books.
Learn more about American University Kyiv: auk.edu.ua

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Past behaviour reaching into the present? ". . . [Tsar] Alexei granted noble tyranny over the peasantry, 90% of the population. Nobility would be defined by the privilege of owning other human beings, setting a Russian pattern of behaviour: servility to those above, tyranny to those below." Simon Montefiore, "The Romanovs", Vintage Books, 2016, p. 48. Fortunately, there are courageous Russians who are not servile. See Kura-Murza, Navalny, Kasparov, Nemtsov. May they be the future of Russia.