Abstract

From the speaker:

"Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Russian President Putin has made a range of veiled nuclear threats. Is he bringing us back to the 1950s-60s, when the US-Soviet nuclear confrontation was the centerpiece of the Cold War? Can his remarks be compared to Khrushchev's famous 'we will bury you' speech? This talk will examine Putin's remarks in light of Russia's increased reliance on nuclear weapons at a time when old arms control treaties and regular nuclear dialogue have lapsed. What does Putin think of nuclear weapons and why has he made them so central to his public presentation of Russian national security?"

Bio

https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/communities-connections/faculty/peter-clement

Peter Clement is a Senior Research Scholar/Adjunct Professor at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He teaches courses on Contemporary Russian Security Policy and Intelligence and Foreign Policy.

Clement came to Columbia following his retirement from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2018. Among his senior CIA positions: Deputy Assistant Director of CIA for Europe and Eurasia (2015-2017); Deputy Director for Intelligence for Analytic Programs (2005-2013); Director of the Office of Russian and Eurasian Analysis and CIA's Russia Issue Manager (1995-2003). Clement served as the President's Daily Brief (PDB) daily briefer for Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Council (NSC) Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Deputy NSC Adviser Stephen Hadley in 2003-2004. He briefly served at the National Security Council as the Director for Russia and later served as the senior CIA representative to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

Clement has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 2001. He has published some dozen journal articles and book chapters on Soviet and Russian foreign policy, most recently "Putin's Risk Spiral: The Logic of Escalation in an Unraveling War" in Foreign Affairs online, and a forthcoming book chapter assessing Putin's foreign policy since 2000. He also is finishing a book about CIA analysts, their work and career trajectories. Clement earned a PhD in Russian history and a master's degree in Modern European history from Michigan State University, and a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from SUNY-Oswego.

Location:	Facility for Rare Isotope Beams [map]
Price:	free
Sponsor:	public
Contact:	Bob Patterer events@frib.msu.edu
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