Garčević & Storella Join Panel on Russian Foreign Policy in the 1990s
On October 13, 2022, Ambassador Vesko Garčević, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, and Ambassador Mark Storella, Pardee School Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and Director of the School’s African Studies Center, took part in an event on Russian Foreign Policy in the 1990s hosted by the Alexander Hamilton Society’s BU chapter and the BU Undergraduate History Association.
Students from across Boston convened to appreciate the complexities of authoritarianism in Russian statesmanship. Storella moderated the discussion between Garčević and Dr. Anna Borshevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. All speakers agreed that in the first half of the 1990s, Russia acted as a world power that harmonized its interests with the other powers and shared the responsibility for global peace and order. However, Garčević noted that as time went on, the feeling grew among the Russian hardliners that this policy didn’t bear fruits. In their eyes, Russia didn’t have the treatment of an equal partner, and its interests were not respected. They believed that the Kremlin had lost its global relevance and thus ushered in Vladimir Putin’s era.
Thank you @hamiltonsoc for organizing the event about 🇷🇺 foreign policy in the 90s. It was my pleasure to take part in the discussion along with @annaborsh @MarkStorella Special thx go to students from the BU Alexander Hamilton Society who made this happen @BUPardeeSchool pic.twitter.com/fiijtzvtwx
— Vesko Garcevic (@VeskoGarcevic) October 14, 2022
Garčević went on to say that Moscow brought up North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union (EU) enlargement as a problem after 2008, not at the moment when enlargement was taking place. After the war in Georgia in 2008, the Kremlin was more often using the argument that NATO as an alliance was directed specifically against Moscow and accused key European countries of having instrumentalized the EU for the same purpose. This point became especially popular after the West lukewarmly reacted to their proposal for the creation of the European Security Treaty (EST) to provide “indivisible security” for nations from Vancouver to Vladivostok. Garčević also noted that the Ukraine association agreement in 2013 was seen in Moscow as proof that Russia and the EU could not agree about the future of their common neighborhood.
During his diplomatic career, Ambassador Vesko Garčević dealt with issues pertinent to European security and NATO for almost 14 years. In 2004, he was posted in Vienna to serve as Ambassador to Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He had been Montenegro’s Ambassador to NATO from 2010 until 2014 and served as Montenegro’s National Coordinator for NATO from 2015 until he joined the faculty at the Pardee School. Learn more about Ambassador Garčević on his faculty profile.
Ambassador Mark C. Storella was a United States Foreign Service Officer for over three decades serving as Ambassador to Zambia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, and Dean of the Leadership and Management School of the Foreign Service Institute. Storella is a recipient of the Presidential Rank Award, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Excellence in Service Award, the Thomas Jefferson Award presented by American Citizens Abroad, and several Department of State superior and meritorious honor awards. Learn more about Ambassador Storella on his faculty profile.