Russia-Ukraine War: A View from the Baltic States

About Speakers:

Dr. Tomas Janeliūnas is a full-time professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science (IIRPS), Vilnius University, and Chief Research Officer of the Eastern Europe Studies Centre. He has been lecturing in Vilnius University since 2003, including such subjects as Strategic Studies, National Security, and Foreign Policy of Lithuania, as well as Foreign Policy of the Great Powers. Janeliūnas is also a Director of a non-profit organisation Energy Research Institute. His recent works on energy includes contributions to a book on energy transition of the Central and Eastern Europe and The Palgrave Handbook of Zero Carbon Energy Systems and Energy Transitions.

Before returning to U of T, Andres Kasekamp was Professor of Baltic Politics at the University of Tartu in Estonia and Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute. He has also been a visiting professor at Humboldt University Berlin and a visiting researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. His first book was The Radical Right in Interwar Estonia (Palgrave 2000). His second book, A History of the Baltic States (Palgrave 2010), has been translated into nine languages. His research interests include populist radical right parties, memory politics, European foreign and security policy, and cooperation and conflict in the Baltic Sea region. He has served as the editor of the Journal of Baltic Studies, and is currently the President-Elect of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies. Prof. Kasekamp has appeared as an expert in the foreign affairs committee of the parliaments of Canada, Estonia, Finland and the European Union, as well as the Baltic Assembly.

Žaneta Ozoliņa is a Chairwoman of the Latvian Transatlantic Organization and Professor of International Relations, University of Latvia. Her research interests focus on European integration, Transatlantic security, strategic communication, regional cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. Žaneta Ozoliņa is the author of more than 100 scholarly articles and editor of several books, including such as Rethinking Security (2010), Gender and Human Security: a View from the Baltic Sea Region (2015), Societal Security: Inclusion-Exclusion Dilemma. A portrait of Russian-speaking community in Latvia (2016), Stratcom Laughs. In search of an Analytical Framework (2017), Subjective Security Perception of Latvia’s Inhabitants: impact on security policy making (2021). She is a member of the editorial boards of several journals, such as Journal of Baltic Studies, Defence Strategic Communications, Lithuanian Annual Strategic Review. She was a chairwoman of the Strategic Analysis Commission under the Auspices of the President of Latvia (2004-2008) and a member of the European Research Area Board (European Commission, 2008-2012). She was engaged in different international projects commissioned by the European Parliament, the European Commission, NATO, the Council of the Baltic Sea States and other international bodies. She chairs the Foreign Affairs Council of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is a member of the European Council of Foreign Relations and the Alphen Group. Žaneta Ozoliņa is a representative of the Boston Global Forum in Latvia.

Lucan Way’s research focuses on global patterns of democracy and dictatorship. His most recent book (with Steven Levitsky), Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism (forthcoming Princeton University Press) provides a comparative historical explanation for the extraordinary durability of autocracies (China, Cuba, USSR) born of violent social revolution. Way’s solo-authored book, Pluralism by Default: Weak Autocrats and the Rise of Competitive Politics (Johns Hopkins, 2015), examines the sources of political competition in the former Soviet Union. Way argues that pluralism in the developing world often emerges out of authoritarian weakness: governments are too fragmented and states too weak to monopolize political control. His first book, Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War (with Steven Levitsky), was published in 2010 by Cambridge University Press. Way’s work on competitive authoritarianism has been cited thousands of times and helped stimulate new and wide-ranging research into the dynamics of hybrid democratic-authoritarian rule.

Sponsored by Petro Jacyk Program for the Study Ukraine and the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies.