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Rayburn House Office Building Room 2203 Tuesday, December 1st, 2015 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m
With the Turkish downing of a Russian warplane on Tuesday, November 24th near the Turkish-Syrian border, the international community has become increasingly concerned that the situation in Syria could worsen. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the incident would have “serious consequences for Russia’s relationship with Turkey.” At the same time, it appears that Putin wants to be a more dominate player in the region, and is attempting to surpass America’s role. The Russians have brought planes, tanks, and ships to Syria, and just recently sent ground troops into the country, according to a report in a Kuwaiti daily. And although Moscow says it is fighting ISIS, it has supported the Assad regime for decades.
What exactly is Russia trying to accomplish in Syria? And whose side is Russia really on? To help answer these questions and more, please join us for a seminar featuring international security expert Dr. Ariel Cohen.
Ariel Cohen, L.L.B., Ph.D., is a recognized authority on international security and energy policy, and the rule of law and a leading expert in Russia/Eurasia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Dr. Cohen is the Founder and Director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Analysis of Global Security, a Washington, DC, think tank. He is the Principal of International Market Analysis, a political risk advisory with specialty in energy and natural resources. Dr. Ariel Cohen also serves as a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, within the Global Energy Center and the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center. Until 2015, he was a Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Policy at the Heritage Foundation. He directed Heritage’s global energy simulation exercises and works closely with Congressmen, Congressional staff members, and cabinet- and sub-cabinet level domestic and foreign decision-makers, including on conventional and unconventional oil and gas markets. Dr. Cohen directs high-level conferences on international energy security, the rule of law, crime and corruption, and a variety of other issues.
Dr. Cohen frequently testifies before committees of the U.S. Congress, including the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees, the House Armed Services Committee, the House Judiciary Committee and the Helsinki Commission. Dr. Cohen regularly lectures at the request of U.S. Government institutions: the U.S. Department of State, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Training and Doctrine and Special Forces Commands of the U.S. armed services, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency and also conducts White House briefings. He also directs high-level conferences on international security, energy, the rule of law, crime and corruption, and a variety of other issues.
Dr. Cohen consults for Fortune 500 companies and international law firms. He served as a Senior Consultant for Burson Marsteller’s Emerging Markets practice, a global public affairs firm, and for Emerging Markets Communications, a boutique strategic communications consultancy. He has prepared expert testimonies and/or testified in high profile cases tried by leading Washington law firms; and wrote expert opinions for investors who are involved in a multi-billion dollar suits against illegal expropriations in the countries of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. He also was a Policy Adviser with the National Institute for Public Policy’s Center for Deterrence Analysis. In addition, Dr. Cohen has consulted for U.S. AID, The World Bank, the Pentagon, the U.S. Senate, and Radio Liberty-Radio Free Europe.
Dr. Cohen has published six books and monographs; 30 book chapters; and over 500 articles in professional and popular media. He appears on CNN, NBC, CBS, FOX, C-SPAN, BBC-TV, Al Jazeera English, and all Russian and Ukrainian national TV networks. He was a commentator on a Voice of America weekly radio and TV show for eight years. Currently, he is a Contributing Editor to the National Interest and a blogger for the Voice of America. For eight years, he wrote commentary columns for United Press International, Middle East Times, and has extensively written as a guest columnist for the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, EurasiaNet, and National Review Online. In Europe, Cohen’s analyses have appeared in Kommersant, Izvestiya, Hurriyet, the popular Russian website Ezhenedelny Zhurnal, and many others.
