EXPERTS ADVISORY

Russian and Iranian foreign ministers were set to meet today (Oct. 28) to discuss Syria amid increasing tensions between Russia and NATO allies.

University of Michigan experts can comment on the issue:

Ronald Grigor Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of history and professor of political science. He is also a senior researcher at the National Research University-Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

“NATO and the United States must realize that its interests in Syria and those of Iran and Russia differ greatly, and that with Russia and Iran coordinating more fully, the West must better understand those conflicting interests and deal sensibly with the other side’s concerns,” he said. “Actually, this may make it easier, if each side is attentive to the other, to bring the Syrian conflict to some kind of rough solution.

“Since the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States has enjoyed a kind of unipolar dominance in much of the world. Russia and a few other countries, like China, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela among others, have opposed this American global hegemony, which is exercised in Europe through NATO. The growing closeness of Russia and Iran is part of a major shift that some of these countries are attempting to limit the global reach of the United States.”

Contact: 734-647-4883, rgsuny@umich.edu, SKYPE: ronald.suny

Melvyn Levitsky is a professor of international policy and practice at the Ford School of Public Policy. He spent 35 years as a U.S. diplomat under eight different presidential administrations. He served as officer-in-charge of U.S.-Soviet bilateral relations and as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He recently discussed U.S.-Russia relations. Read the full interview or watch the video here: myumi.ch/65OV8

“I believe the focus of the meeting will be on the situation in Aleppo,” he said. “Russia and its ally, Syria, have been widely criticized for indiscriminate bombing and shelling of the city with the consequent loss of innocent civilian lives. They have also not been helpful to the international humanitarian effort to send supplies into the city. It’s clear that the primary targets of all three countries (Iran via its stand-in, Hezbollah) have not been ISIS and the al Nusra Front, but rather the opposition to Syrian President Assad.

“Bringing up these missiles, giving missiles to Iran, what they’re doing in Syria, what they’ve already done in Ukraine, presents real threats to American national security. And while we don’t want to have an armed conflict quite obviously—and I don’t think they do either—it’s unclear what the negotiating agenda is now.”

Contact: 734-615-4262 or levitsky@umich.edu

Brian Porter-Szucs is a professor of history and studies modern Poland, Roman Catholicism and the economics of socialism and capitalism. He’s currently in Poland conducting research and has been writing extensively about current events from a Polish perspective at porterszucs.pl/blog. He can discuss the crisis in the EU, the rise of the far right and xenophobia, Europe’s economic struggles and any issues related to Poland.

Contact: baporter@umich.edu

Greta Uehling is an anthropologist works with the Program on International and Comparative Studies and the Center for Russian and East European Studies. Her work focuses on internally displaced persons, the militarization of Russian-occupied Crimea, the Crimean blockade, and the war in Donbass, Ukraine. She also has significant expertise on human smuggling, human trafficking and the US immigration system.

Contact: uehling@umich.edu