Joint MGIMO-Fletcher U.S.-Russia Relations Course

On December 5, 2017, the last session of the Contemporary Issues in Russia-U.S. Relations course took place.  It was conducted jointly by MGIMO University and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The course was implemented within the framework of a program partnership between the two universities.

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy was established in 1933 by Harvard University and Tufts University. It is the oldest graduate school of international relations, diplomacy, and international law in the United States. According to the latest ranking published by the Foreign Policy magazine, The Fletcher School is the sixth most respected international affairs school in the world.

Throughout the semester, the students of the MGIMO University and The Fletcher School discussed the key issues on the global agenda, as well as the policies of Russia and the United States in key regions of the world. In addition, they prepared a number of joint analytical projects on the subject of the course.

The final class was held in the format of a master class involving MGIMO Director of the School of Government and International Affairs Mikhail Troitskiy, and Professor of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Daniel Drezner. During the presentations and the Q&A session, they shared their views on the current state and prospects for the development of cooperation between Moscow and Washington.

Both experts pointed to multiple internal political and psychological barriers to the normalization of bilateral relations. In this regard, they stressed the need to expand knowledge of the other side in order to prevent undesirable escalation based on possible miscalculations and misconceptions about the motivations of the other party. The joint MGIMO-Fletcher course aimed to contribute to the resolution of this problem.

This piece was translated and republished from MGIMO website.