Igor Zevelev

Igor Alexandrovich Zevelev (Russian: Игорь Александрович Зевелев; born 1955) is a Russian political scientist who has worked as Director of The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Russia office since 2008.

Igor Zevelev was born in Tashkent, USSR. In 1966, when he was ten years old, he moved to Moscow with his parents and sister. In 1978 he graduated from the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Lomonosov Moscow State University, where he majored in history and studied Chinese, Burmese and English. Zevelev defended his Ph.D. in history at Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1982.

As a graduate student, Igor Zevelev worked as an interpreter from English to Russian on student trips to Europe and Asia, which allowed him to see many countries when international travel was not easily accessible for citizens of the USSR.

In 1992 he defended his Doctor of Sciences degree (the highest academic rank in Russia) in political science at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) in Moscow.

Igor Zevelev has had an academic and research career intertwined with leadership positions in the fields of journalism and in international foundations.

After graduating from Lomonosov Moscow State University's Institute of Asian and African Countries, Igor Zevelev embarked upon an academic career in the USSR. From 1981 to 1988 Igor he worked as a research fellow at Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies. From 1988 to 1999, he served as Deputy Director and Head of Department at the Center for Developing Countries at the Moscow Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO).

In 1992, Igor Zevelev was invited as visiting professor to the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. This was the first of several visiting professorships all over the United States of America for Igor Zevelev. Throughout the 1990s he taught at San Jose State University, at the University of California Berkeley, at the Jackson School of International Studies of the University of Washington, and at Macalester College. Zevelev taught courses pertaining to Russian and security studies, international relations, Eurasian studies, nationalism, human rights, great powers and comparative democracy.

In 2000, Zevelev left the United States of America for a teaching position at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany, where he worked for five years as Professor of Russian Studies.

In 2005, Zevelev returned to Washington, DC to serve as Washington Bureau Chief for the RIA Novosti Russian News and Information Agency.

In 2008, Igor Zevelev returned to Moscow from the United States of America and took up his current position at Director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Russia office.

Igor Zevelev has also been awarded several research grants in the United States and Europe for research topics pertaining to Russian foreign policy, international relations and security studies. These awards include the Jennings Randolph Program for International Peace Senior Fellowship, the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and the NATO-EAPC Research Fellowship. Igor Zevelev conducted research at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC in 1994, where he worked on a project on “Human Rights in the Relations between Russia and Other Successor States”. He was a Senior Research Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace from 1997 to 1998.

Igor Zevelev is a member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group at the Russian Center for Policy Studies (PIR Center) since 2009. He is also a member of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

Igor Zevelev has published five books and about sixty academic articles. Coming from an academic background in history and Asian studies, Igor Zevelev began his research with the topics of urbanization and development in South-East Asia and human rights in Asian countries during the late 1980s and early 1990s. More recently Zevelev has turned to international politics and worked on Russian foreign policy, Russia–United States relations, Russia-US-China relations and international security.

One of his major contributions to the fields of political science and post-Soviet studies was his book “Russia and its New Diasporas” (US Institute of Peace Press 2001), written during Zevelev’s stay at the United States Institute of Peace. In this book, he examines the political significance of new ethnic Russian “diaspora” communities for the future of Eurasian and international security. Zevelev poses questions about Russia’s national identity, territorial reach, and political influence. Zevelev draws from Western literature on ethnicity, identity and nationalism and the work dissects the Russian Federation’s official policies towards Russian diaspora over time.

Most of Igor Zevelev’s current work focuses on Russian-American and Russian-Chinese relations, as well as politics of identity in Russia. He places these problems into a broad international comparative context. These efforts are reflected in co-authored articles “Russia’s Contested National Identity and Foreign Policy” (in Worldviews of Aspiring Powers, Oxford University Press, 2012) and “Russian Foreign Policy: Continuity in Change” (in The Washington Quarterly, Winter 2012).

Igor Zevelev currently lives in Moscow with his wife Galina Zeveleva. He has two daughters.

Books

• Russia and Its New Diasporas (Washington, DC: The United States Institute of Peace Press, 2001).
• Co-edited with Sharyl Cross, Global Security Beyond the Millennium: American and Russian Perspectives (London: Macmillan Press, 1999).
• Modern Asia: Political Development and Human Rights (Moscow: IMEMO, 1991), in Russian.
• Urbanization and Development in Asia (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1989), in English; (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1990), in Bengali; (Moscow-Delhi-Jaipur: Progress Publishers-People's Publishing House-Rajasthan People's Publishing House, 1990), in Hindi.
• Southeast Asia: Urbanization and Problems of Social Development (Moscow: Nauka Publishers, 1985), in Russian.

Selected Articles, Book Chapters, and Papers

• “A New Realism for the 21st Century: U.S.-China Relations and Russia’s Choice,” Russia in Global Affairs, no. 6 (2012), in Russian; no. 6 (2012), in English.
• “Russia’s Contested National Identity and Foreign Policy,” (co-authored with Andrew Kuchins), in Henry Nau and Deepa Ollapally, eds., Worldviews of Aspiring Powers (Ney York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012).
• “Russian Foreign Policy: Continuity in Change” (co-authored with Andrew Kuchins), The Washington Quarterly 35, no. 1 (Winter 2012).
• “Russia and the New “Russian World,” in Maria Lipman and Nikolay Petrov, eds., Russia in 2020 (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,2011), in English. Also published in Russian (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2012).
• “The ‘Russian Question’ after the Fall of the USSR,” Pro et Contra 14, no. 4-5 (July- October 2010), in Russian.
• “Russian-American Relations in Global Context,” in V. Sumskiy and V. Khoros, eds., The North-the South-Russia, 2009 Yearbook (Moscow: IMEMO RAN, 2010), in Russian.
• “The Future of Russia: Nation or Civilization?” Russia in Global Affairs 7, no. 5 (2009), in Russian; 7, no 4 (2009), in English.
• “Compatriots” in the Russian Policy in the Post-Soviet Space: Imperial Legacy and State Pragmatism,” in A. Miller, ed., The Legacy of the Empires and Russia’s Future (Moscow: NLO, 2008), in Russian.
• “Russia’s Policy Toward Compatriots in the Former Soviet Union,” Russia in Global Affairs 6, no. 1 (2008), in Russian; 6, no 1 (2008), in English.
• “Diasporas in Russia’s Security Strategy,” in R. Wirsing and R. Azizian, eds., Ethnic Diasporas and Great Power Strategies in Asia (New Delhi: India Research Press and Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, 2007).
• “Russia and China in the Mirror of the US Policies,” (co-authored with Mikhail Troitsky), Russia in Global Affairs 5, no. 5 (2007), in Russian; no. 4, in English.
• “Semiotics of the American-Russian Relations” (co-authored with Mikhail Troitsky), World Economy and International Relations, no. 1 (2007), in Russian.
• Power and Influence in the US-Russian Relations: Semiotic Analysis (co-authored with Mikhail Troitsky), Moscow: NOFMO, 2006, in Russian.
• “Russian and American National Identity, Foreign Policy, and Bilateral Relations,” International Politics 39, no. 4 (2002).

Interviews and Commentaries

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96vqjJKgEpo
• http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Foreg
• http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/JointR
• http://media.elliott.gwu.edu/media/american-views-us-russian-relations
• http://onpoint.wbur.org/2007/06/07/us-russia-cold-war-redux
• http://valdaiclub.com/usa/40440.html
• http://ria.ru/education/20100317/214915204.html
• http://rutv.ru/brand/show/episode/155817/channel/4/viewtype/picture
• http://voiceofrussia.com/2011/06/09/51511388/
• http://voiceofrussia.com/2011/08/31/55453678/
• http://voiceofrussia.com/2011/02/11/43928226/