On Monday, November 16, Dr. Michael Slobodchikoff and Dr.
Tomasz Pudlocki led a roundtable discussion on Russia’s War on Terror, as part
of the History and Political Science Speaker Series. The event was well attended, as Drs.
Slobodchikoff and Pudlocki spoke to over 100 people in the audience.
Dr. Slobodchikoff spoke about Syria’s civil war and how ISIL
factors into the problems in Syria, as it is the major opposition faction in
Syria. He also spoke about Russia’s interests
in Syria as well as the surrounding Middle Eastern region. These interests include preventing extremism
and terrorism from spreading to Russia, protecting long-time allies, protecting
military bases, protecting business interests, among many others.
Dr. Slobodchikoff also spoke about recent terrorist
activity. Russian Flight 9268 crashed en
route to St. Petersburg, Russia from Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. ISIL took credit for the crash, which Russia
responded to by cancelling all flights to and from Egypt. He also spoke about the recent attacks on
Paris, France. ISIL has also claimed
credit for the bombings and death of over 100 people in these attacks.
Dr. Pudlocki spoke about the Syrian crisis from the
perspective of Central Europe. He
discussed the current refugee crisis as a result of the Syrian civil war,
economic downturn, and terrorist activity.
He commented on how central Europe has been responding to the influx of
refugees and the struggles faced by these refugees fleeing terror in their home
countries.
The Department of History and Political Science would like
to thank Dr. Slobodchikoff and Dr. Pudlocki for an engaging roundtable on this
very relevant topic. We also thank the
Division of Arts and Sciences for co-sponsoring the event.
For more information on this roundtable discussion, you can see press coverage of the event at the links provided below. The History and Political Science Department was happy to see some of our students featured in the reports!
