Germany’s Role in Russia-Ukraine War

About Speakers:

Sebastian Harnisch is Professor for International Relations and Foreign Policy at the Institute for Political Science of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at Heidelberg University, and member of the Board of Directors of the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA). His main research areas include comparative foreign and security policy, international relations theories, cybersecurity, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and climate change policy issues. Sebastian Harnisch holds degrees in history and political science from Trier University and was a research fellow at the Japan Center for International Exchange (Tokyo, 1996), Columbia University (New York, 1996), and Yonsei University (Seoul, 1996-1997), as well as Heidelberg’s Center of Excellency, the Marsilius-Kolleg (2012-2013). He has taught at Trier University (2003-2006) and the Federal Armed Forces University in Munich (2006-2007), and was visiting professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University (2011), Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (2013), and China Foreign Affairs University (2018). Sebastian Harnisch is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Foreign Policy Analysis journal, as well as co-¬editor of the series Foreign Policy and International Order (Nomos Verl.) and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia for Foreign Policy Analysis (Oxford University Press). He has published numerous books, volumes, and articles in renowned journals.

Kai Oppermann is Professor of International Politics at the Chemnitz University of Technology. He has previously held positions at the University of Sussex, King’s College London and the University of Cologne. His research centres on the domestic sources of European integration and foreign policy, with a focus on transatlantic relations and British and German and foreign policy. Kai won a Marie Curie Fellowship for a research project on EU referendums and worked as a specialist advisor to the House of Lords External Affairs Sub-Committee in the UK. His work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals such as European Journal of International Relations, West European Politics, Foreign Policy Analysis, Journal of European Public Policy and British Journal of Politics and International Relations. Kai is a co-editor at German Politics and an associate editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Foreign Policy Analysis (2018). He regularly gives media interviews on topics related to German and British foreign policy and transatlantic relations.

Dr. Iryna Solonenko is Senior Fellow at Berlin-based think-tank Center for Liberal Modernity. Since 2012 she has been based in Berlin and served as an expert/consultant for numerous organisations in Germany, the EU and Ukraine. From May 2015 to February 2021 she was associate fellow at DGAP. Since 2012, she has been working on a research project at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), addressing state-business relations in hybrid regimes with a focus on the political role of Ukrainian oligarchs. Between 2000 and 2012, she worked with the Open Society Foundations in Ukraine as the director of the European Program and as a project manager for the EastWest Institute in Kyiv. Dr. Iryna Solonenko holds degrees in international relations, European studies, public administration, and history from the Birmigham University, UK; Central European University, Budapest; National Academy of Public Administration, Kyiv; and National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv. Dr. Solonenko is the author of a number of academic, policy, and media publications. She has served on advisory councils with Ukrainian public authorities, has shared her expertise with EU institutions, and has been a board member or expert with such organizations as Kyiv Dialogue, DiXi Group, the Bertelsmann Transformation Index, the Eastern Partnership Index and Varieties of Democracy. Her most recent article “Ukraine’s Fight Is also a Fight for the West’s Future“ was published in the Internationale Politik Querterly, Issue #2, April 2022 – https://ip-quarterly.com/en/ukraines-fight-also-fight-wests-future

Randall Hansen is Director of the Munk School’s Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, as well as the Global Migration Lab. He is Full Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and Canada Research Chair in Global Migration. He served as Interim Director of the Munk School from 2017 to 2020. Hansen works on immigration and citizenship, demography and population policy and the effects of war on civilians. His published works include Disobeying Hitler: German Resistance after Operation Valkyrie (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), Sterilized by the State: Eugenics, Race and the Population Scare in 20th Century North America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), Fire and Fury: the Allied Bombing of Germany (Penguin, 2009), and Citizenship and Immigration in Post-War Britain (Oxford University Press, 2000).

Sponsored by Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of Ukraine. Co-sponsored by Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, and Joint Initiative for German and European Studies.