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The Contemporary History Institute hosts the sixth annual Elizabeth Evans Baker Endowed Lecture featuring Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman (retired) discussing "The Russia-Ukraine War: Its Origins, the Present Fight, and Prognosis for the Future” on Thursday, Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Baker Center 240/242.

Vindman will provide his perspective on the Russia-Ukraine war, U.S. policy for and geopolitical consequences of the war, and U.S. national security. He also will share insights into a career in public service as well as his personal experiences serving in government.

Vindman was most recently the director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Russia on the White House’s National Security Council. Prior to retiring from the U.S. Army, he served as a foreign area officer with assignments in the U.S. embassies in Kyiv, Ukraine and Moscow, Russia, and for the Joint Chiefs of staff as a political and military affairs officer. His insights are particularly valuable given the three years he spent in Russia with regular contact with Russian military leaders and access to their defense and security apparatus. Vindman’s knowledge of the inner workings of both the military and the White House make him outstandingly qualified as an expert on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s obsession with controlling Ukraine.

Vindman is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton with a bachelor of arts degree in history, as well as Harvard University with a master of arts degree in Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian studies. In 2022, Vindman earned a doctorate in international affairs from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, with his doctoral dissertation on the topic of U.S. Foreign Policy towards Ukraine from 1991-2004.

An expert who provided testimony during former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, Vindman currently travels the globe providing insights about the ongoing war in Ukraine and Putin’s efforts to establish Russia once again as a superpower.

The event is free and open to the public. There will be an opportunity for questions and answers.