Brainstorm with Princeton graduate students

November 1 2017 the School of World Politics and Princeton University held a round table discussion titled ‘the US-Russian relations in the Middle East: challenges and prospects’ with a participation of a prominent American diplomat and an expert Daniel Kurtzer, U.S. ambassador to Egypt (1997-2001) and to Israel (2001-2005), professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Director of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, The Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Associate Professor at the Chair of Regional Problems of World Politics Vasiliy Kuznetsov and Research Fellow at the Center for Security and Development Studies (CSDS) of the School of World Politics at the Lomonosov Moscow State University Luiza Khlebnikova played coordinating role in organization of the event.

American side of the event was represented by a group of Master's Degree students led by Daniel Kurtzer, Russian side – by a group of Master's Degree program “Regional Problems of World Politics” students, PhD-candidates and young Research Fellows of the CSDS of the School of World Politics at the MSU, who specialize in Middle East studies and foreign policy of the U.S. No less than 10 persons participated in the dialogue from each side.

Program of the event included discussion of the US and Russian approaches to the Middle East situation with a focus on the Syrian conflict, identifying of the shared interests and contrasting perceptions between two countries and also search for prospects for broadening of the cooperation and minimizing the risks of escalation of tension in bilateral coordination in high-priority regional problems.

Discussion was held in interactive and playing format, which imitated the Track II of international negotiations. Vasiliy Kuznetsov took on the role of main moderator. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer and Deputy Dean for Research, Director of the CSDS of the School of World Politics at the MSU Vladimir Bartenev have also made substantial introductory and conclusive comments. Dean of the School of World Politics, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrei Kokoshin has greeted the participants before beginning of the event.

Brainstorm has lasted for almost 3 hours and passed rather lively and in the friendliest format. This fact provided reassurance of the organizers in the promising outlook of exchange of opinions regarding the most difficult problems of the agenda of the US-Russian relations and in the necessity of continuation of cooperation in similar format in the future.