On Thursday, February 18, the Russian Department held the first lecture event of the spring semester: “Russia, Syria, and the United States.” The lecture was delivered via Skype by Professor Russell Bova, Walter E. Beach Chair in Political Science at Dickinson College. Professor Bova is currently living in Italy, where he directs the Dickinson Center in Bologna. He began his talk by summarizing the history of Russian involvement in Syria and then turned to an analysis of both US and Russian strategies in the region. He also offered insights into the severity of the ongoing migrant crisis, and how the politics surrounding resettling Syrian refugees and migrants threatens the very makeup of the European Union and the Schengen zone. The talk was attended by over forty students, including those enrolled in the Russian Department’s spring 2016 courses on “The Politics of Oil” and “Russia and the West.” This lecture was the first of a series of events this semester meant to provide an array of perspectives on the intersections of Russian and US foreign policy in Europe and the Middle East.
