Ready to get topical with Rowan College at Burlington County? The next event in their ongoing Global Studies Lecture Series invites Dr. Hal Brands, a Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs from John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 

On March 29, at 6 pm, Brands will join RCBC professor Dr. Brandon Chapman for “What the Cold War Teaches Us About Great-Power Rivalry Today.” This discussion will include a history of the Cold War and how the events, strategies and outcomes of that shape the grand strategies in foreign policy of the U.S., China and Russia. The conversation will also focus on the current Russia-Ukraine war.

Dr. Brands is a leading scholar in the history of U.S. grand strategies and foreign policy and relations, the history of the Cold War and U.S. defense strategy. He has already written extensively on the current situation and has numerous current and past affiliations researching and writing about these issues with various think tanks and universities, such as the Brookings Institution, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Georgetown University, Duke University and he is currently a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Besides his academic publications, his writings regularly appear in key news analysis outlets, such as Foreign Affairs and Bloomberg, and he previously served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Strategic Planning and as lead writer for the National Defense Strategy Commission.

Dr. Chapman boasts over a decade of history of research, ethnographic work, personal relationships and travel across both Russia and Ukraine. He’s visited Lviv, Kyiv and Crimea, in Ukraine (he was in Crimea two months before the invasion in early 2014) and across Russia. He’s traveled to that region regularly since the early 2010s. 

“The Ukrainian population is, obviously, taking the brunt of this invasion and the results across the country are deep and heartbreaking to see, Chapman said. “Many of their lives are permanently altered for the worse. The Russian population, while not experiencing the same level of change, are still having their lives upended in significant ways. When dealing with a nuclear global power, like Russia, it is understandable and necessary why the U.S. cannot strategically bomb the regime or enforce a no-fly zone, as it could likely trigger a larger and more destructive war. So, sanctions are the chosen tool, but they are in almost all ways affecting the daily lives of the Russian population much more than the regime.”

Chapman has presented at various conferences, conducted ethnographic interviews and collected survey data from the Russian population on various subjects. He leads RCBC’s Global Studies initiatives and has invited Dr. Leon Aron, a Russian national and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, to “Vladimir Putin, The Road to Ukraine” to further the Russia-Ukraine discussion. Dr. Aron immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee in 1978 and is a leading scholar in Russian politics and political history, Russia's foreign and domestic strategies and policies, and political, economic and social transitions in Russian society after the fall of the Soviet Union. He wrote the first in-depth biography of Boris Yeltsin and has appeared on PBS NewsHour, CNN, C-SPAN, CBS News, 60 Minutes and more.

RCBC’s Global Studies Lecture Series brings world-renowned scholars and researchers to the college to discuss and engage with students and the public on crucial and current issues in global security, conflict, health and environment.

To learn more, visit rcbc.edu/events.