The Russian invasion of Ukraine has replaced regular updates on COVID on our television screens and social media platforms.

The brutality and human rights abuses of war allow some Western journalists to draw comparisons with Syria, notwithstanding their silence during most of the 11 years of conflict in the wake of the Arab uprisings.

For an informed discussion about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the broader context, implications for the Middle East, and the political fallout for Russia, its foreign policy, and the international order, join us on Friday 29 April!

Panellists

Chair: Dr Hanlie Booysen (MEISA, VUW)

Associate Professor Alexander Maxwell (VUW)

War in Ukraine: how did we get here?

Alexander Maxwell researches national awakening in the Habsburg Empire and its successor states, and particularly in Slovakia and Hungary during the long nineteenth century. He teaches courses in Soviet history, German history, the history of the Middle East, and on the theory of nationalism. He is the author of Choosing Slovakia, Everyday Nationalism in Hungary, and Patriots Against Fashion. He is currently researching linguistic pan-Slavism.

Dr Mhd Hosam Hafez (Otago)

Russia's new adventure and the Middle East: Overlaps and repercussions, or the harbingers of a new international order?

Mhd Hosam Hafez is currently a PhD candidate in Politics at the University of Otago. Formerly a lecturer/assistant professor of Public International Law, International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, he has worked with the Syrian Foreign Ministry and held diplomatic postings at embassies in Tehran, London and Yerevan. Since 2012, Hosam has been an active participant in the Syrian political process with the Syrian opposition.

Associate Professor James Headley (Otago)

Russian Foreign Policy and the Ukraine War: continuity or departure?

Associate Professor James Headley's research interests are in Russian foreign policy, the European Union, nationalism and ethnic conflict, and International Relations theory. He is the author of Russia and the Balkans: Foreign Policy from Yeltsin to Putin (Hurst and Co./Columbia University Press, 2008) and co-editor of Public Participation in Foreign Policy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). He joined the Department of Politics in 2005, having previously lectured at the University of Auckland, University of Leicester, and University College London.

RSVP

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Email meisa@otago.ac.nz