Russia-U.S. Relations in 2025: Can Arctic Science Diplomacy Mend Strategic Fences?

Name: Russia-U.S. Relations in 2025: Can Arctic Science Diplomacy Mend Strategic Fences?
Start: 2024-12-05T12:00:00-0500
End: 2024-12-05T13:15:00-0500

RSVP Required Open to the Public

Date: Thu, Dec 5, 2024 Time: 12:00pm - 01:15pm Location: Belfer Building - Belfer 322 Salata Conference Room

Panelist
Masha Vorontsova

Panelist
Marisol Maddox

Panelist
Margaret Williams

Moderator
Jennifer Spence

U. S. Preisdent George Bush and Soviet President Gorbachev smile at each other during their joint statement and news conference aboard the Maxim Gorky docked in Marsaxlokk Bay, Malta. — U.S. President George Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev smile at each other during their joint statement and news conference aboard the Maxim Gorky docked in Marsaxlokk Bay, Malta, Sunday, Dec. 3, 1989. During the Cold War era, cooperation in science offered a path toward warming relations.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. and European governments halted all scientific cooperation between federal scientists and their Russian counterparts. Most universities followed suit, abandoning 30 years of relationships and projects that informed climate science, environmental protection and industrial development. In the Arctic, the disruption comes at a time of intensifying climate impacts and major geopolitical tensions.

During the Cold War era, cooperation in science offered a path toward warming U.S.-Russia relations. The Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative and the Davis Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies hosted a discussion on whether – and how – Arctic science diplomacy can be a useful approach toward improving relations once more.