LYME/OLD LYME/AREAWIDE — On Tuesday, June 8, at 6 p.m., the Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council (SECWAC) presents Dr. David Abramson of the US State Department speaking on Prospects for a Russia-China Alliance: Moscow’s Calculus.
The presentation will be online via Zoom.
Registration is required at this link. The event is free for members while the fee for guests is $20. The link to join us will be emailed with your registration confirmation.
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have flirted with and talked around the prospect of a Sino-Russian alliance, but the truth is both sides are reluctant to commit to alliances in general because of the various restraints they impose on members. Uncertainties about future U.S. foreign policy and shifts in the world order heighten those uncertainties.
Dr. David Abramson will discuss these issues from Moscow’s perspective and assess the chances that its increasingly warm and reciprocated public rhetoric about their “comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination” is leading towards a formal alliance.
Dr. Abramson is senior analyst covering Russia’s relations with Asia for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He previously worked for many years as a Central Asia analyst, focusing primarily on domestic and regional politics and Islamic trends in Eurasia.
During 2001-2005, Dr. Abramson spent four years in the Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, monitoring and promoting religious freedom as an element of U.S. foreign policy, advising on outreach to the Muslim world, and engaging with Muslim-American communities.
Dr. Abramson has taught at Georgetown and George Washington universities and published on Islam, foreign assistance in Central Asia, and anthropologists working in national security. His most recent publication is a chapter on Islam and state policies in Uzbekistan in “Islam, Society, and Politics in Central Asia.”
Raised in Storrs, Conn., he later earned his B.A. in Russian language and literature at Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at Indiana University.
If you are new to Zoom virtual meetings and would like to learn more about how to join the event, visit zoom.us for more information. Also, feel free to call 860-912-5718 for technical advice prior to the event. It will not be possible to resolve issues during the meeting.
A link to the recording will be shared via email following the meeting.