The personal fates of Gulag returnees and their millions of relatives who had been cruelly stigmatized–I knew quite a few of them in Moscow in the late 1970s, when I began collecting their stories–varied greatly. Elderly or broken, some died almost immediately after their release; others lived into their 90s. Some remained forever fearful, concealing their zek past; others considered their Gulag experience a badge of honor.

Robert Wright and historian Samuel Moyn discuss the role of atrocity in changing the US’s approach to warfare.

Reducing the nuclear role means limiting—not increasing—the circumstances under which the United States would contemplate the use of nuclear weapons.

The Nuclear Posture Review gives Biden the opportunity to reduce the greatest nuclear risk: accidental nuclear war.

In his latest book, The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and The Case for Complacency, the esteemed American political scientist John Mueller demonstrates that since the end of the Second World War, American policymakers have developed a kind of addiction to threat inflation by “routinely elevating the problematic to the dire…focused on problems, or monsters, that essentially didn’t exist.” And with regard to the American foreign policy establishment’s current twin obsessions, Russia and China, Mueller, ever the iconoclast, counsels complacency.

Fiona Hill’s recent Foreign Affairs article is flawed, both in its failure to explain why Hill elected to serve as an aide to Trump, whom she clearly reviled, and in its recapitulation of key episodes that took place during the administration.

As the Nobel Peace Prize committee recognized with the award to Dmitrii Muratov, independent journalism and media freedom in Russia confront growing threats.

Her unflinching reporting for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta on the Chechen War’s human-rights abuses, corruption, and brutality made her one of Russia’s bravest journalists.

I met Politkovskaya a few times, in Moscow and in New York. (The Nation and her newspaper Novaya Gazeta have long had good ties—my husband, Stephen Cohen, and I befriended Novaya’s brave editor Dmitri Muratov in 1993 a few weeks before he founded the paper.)

A Message from ACURA’s Cynthia Lazaroff:

Dear Friends,

Please join me and an extraordinary group of women dedicated to transforming our nuclear legacy!

Journalism, Media & Our Nuclear Legacy:
The Stakes, Challenges & Opportunities

A Collaboration with The American
Committee for US-Russia Accord

Wednesday, October 13th
9:00 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Via Zoom
REGISTER: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwocuqtrjwvHNNt7OIRzxY4qshKM5u7Kbve

Please register, spread the word
and bring your friends!

Opening Blessing

Hawaiian Cultural Practitioner Kumu Hula Puna Dawson will offer a blessing for peace

Mentor Presenters:

Rachel Bronson, President and CEO, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Elena Chernenko, Special Correspondent, Kommersant; Member, Presidium, Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (SVOP) and PIR-Center Council

Lovely Umayam, Founder and Creative Producer of Bombshelltoe Policy x Arts

Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation Magazine; President, The American Committee for US-Russia Accord

We look forward to gathering and learning with you!

Peace and Blessings,

Cynthia Lazaroff

On Wednesday, February 27, 2019, Stephen Cohen, one of America’s most influential and controversial Russia experts, and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, joined the LA World Affairs Council for a discussion on the new Cold War and how it has been exacerbated by both Washington and the US mainstream media. The discussion was moderated by UCLA professor of political science and Russia expert Daniel Treisman.