speaker-photo

James Sherr

Senior Fellow, Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at the International Centre for Defence and Security

James Sherr is a Senior Fellow for the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at the International Centre for Defence and Security. Since 2011, Sherr has been an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House and from 2008 to 2011, he was the head of the same programme. Sherr is widely published and has written on Soviet and Russian military, security and foreign policy and energy security. He has also focused on the Black Sea region and Ukraine’s effort to deal with Russia, the West and its own domestic problems. 

14:45-16:00

Friday March, 4

Panel VI: The Return of History or the End of the World? The Russian Ultimatum to the West

From the so-called ‘Wild Nineties’ to the present, Western pundits have predicted Russian collapse or decline. In some discourses, Russia has been reduced to the status of a second-rate power or a geopolitical annoyance, based on its demographics, economy, or global relevance. Russian political analysts, on the other hand, have described a decline of the West and a continuing shift toward geopolitical multipolarity, wherein Russia would regain its former status as a global power. The invasion of Ukraine brings these two points of view to a cacophonous crescendo, and it seems that only one of these voices will remain in the subsequent quiet. This concluding panel will discuss this key point of contention in light of the current aggression.

Moderator: Dr. Sandis Šrāders, Fellow, Baltic Defence College