Fort Ross
Events
2018
Fort Ross Dialogue 2018

Fort Ross Dialogue 2018

October 15th, 2018
10am – 3:30pm
 3:30 – 4:00 Photography Exhibition and Reception
Golden Gate Club, Presidio, San Francisco

Fort Ross’ history provides a symbolic backdrop for shared US-Russia relations, and Fort Ross Conservancy strives to continue that tradition. Fort Ross Conservancy and the Kennan Institute invite you to attend our seventh annual Fort Ross Dialogue, scheduled for Monday, October 15th, 2018, at the Golden Gate Club in the Presidio of San Francisco. Fort Ross Dialogue is an independent forum where Americans and Russians meet in a constructive atmosphere to encourage conversation and collaboration. This event generously sponsored by Chevron, Transneft, and Sovcomflot.

Questions? Email Sarah Sweedler, Fort Ross Conservancy sarahs@fortross.org
Directions to Golden Gate Club

10am – 10:20 Official Opening

  • Welcome, Sarah Sweedler, Fort Ross Conservancy CEO
  • Honorable Edmund G. Brown, Governor of California
  • His Excellency Anatoly Ivanovich Antonov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States of America

10:20 – 11:00am: Brief remarks from thought leaders, sponsors and regional leaders

  • Dr. William Perry, 19th US Secretary of Defense and Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
  • Andrey Sergeyevich Nikitin, Governor of Novgorod region
  • Video greeting from Matt Rojansky, Executive Director, Kennan Institute
  • Brigadier General (ret) Peter Zwack, Senior Research Fellow, National Defense University
  • Mr. Andrew McGrahan, President Chevron Neftegaz and Chairman CPC-R at Chevron
  • Mr. Mikhail Margelov, Vice President, Transneft
  • Mr. Nikolay Kolesnikov, Executive Vice President, Sovcomflot

11:00am – 12:15pm: The Future of U.S.-Russian Relations (coordinated by the Kennan Institute)

Oleg Stepanov – Director, Foreign Policy Planning Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russia; former Deputy Chief of Mission, Russian Embassy in Washington; formerly at Russian Consulate, San Francisco,

Michael Kimmage – Professor. The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC; formerly member, Policy Planning Staff, U.S. Department of State; member, Kennan Institute Advisory Board, Wilson Center, Washington, DC,

Two students of foreign affairs, one American one Russian:

  • Artem Polyskalov, 22, graduate student at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), receiving his major in diplomacy and diplomatic service. Specializes in U.S.-Russia relations. Speaks English and Turkish.
  • Isaac Webb is a law student at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Formerly a Fulbright Fellow in Ukraine and a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., his writing has been featured in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, Open Democracy, and World Policy Journal, among other publications.

Led by a current and a former diplomat from Russia and the United States respectively, this panel discussion will combine diplomatic expertise with the study of international affairs. It will begin with an assessment of the current state of affairs and an outline of the problems weighing down the U.S.-Russian relationship (Ukraine, Syria, election interference, etc.). From there it will move to an evaluation of future options and scenarios, with emphasis placed on constructive ways forward. Given the nature and location of this dialogue, it will accent sub-national diplomacy – that is, the role that cities and regions can play in international affairs and diplomacy in concert with national capitals and at times independently of them. Key topics in U.S.-Russian sub-national diplomacy will include cultural and scientific exchange, environmental issues and urban planning as possible areas of cooperation between the United States and Russia. Finally, this panel will put youth and generational change in the foreground, not taking the status quo as a given. With students as active participants, it will explore the transitions that may shape the U.S.-Russian relationship in the months and years to come.

== Lunch ==

1:30pm Announcement on 2019 Fort Ross Dialogue, Vologda Russia conference theme, “Towards Each Other: Science and Business Diplomacy as an Effective Soft Power Factor in U.S.- Russia Relations,”

  • Valeriy Garbuzov, Director of the Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences,
  • Olga Rebro, Senior Fellow, “Eurasian Strategies” MGIMO-Consultancy,
  • Valery Fokin, Professor of Chemistry, The Bridge@USC and Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute.

1:50pm: US & Russian Specialists: A Discussion about the Future of Scientific, Technological and Academic Collaboration

  • Raymond Jeanloz, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Berkeley
  • Anna Vassilieva, Professor, Russian Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
  • Alla Kassianova, Senior Research Associate, Center for International Security & Cooperation, Stanford University

2:30pm: Fort Ross State Historic Park Projects–Broadening Engagements and Expanding Collaborations
This session will explore past, present and future park projects such the recent historic cemetery improvements, and the newly funded project to develop a segment of the California Coastal Trail as a Cultural Trail using new technologies to explore the park’s history and environs with a multimedia applications. Decades of research are being revisited and expanded through broadening engagement with not only the Kashia Pomo on whose ancestral lands the park resides, but also with other California tribes, Alaska Natives, Russians, and others where this truly global story comes together.

  • Dr. Leslie L. Hartzell – introducing a new project to build out the California Coastal Trail segment at Fort Ross
  • Kashia THPO Lorin Smith – the importance of the Cultural Trail to Kashia Pomo
  • Dr. Kent G. Lightfoot – introducing little known stories that the trail will make available  (first shipyard in California; Alaska Natives Village)
  • Dr. Glenn Farris – Story of the Russian Village
  • Dr. Leslie L. Hartzell – Using the mobile app to tell these stories.

3:30pm—4pm:   Reception and Photographic Exhibition

Kashia Tribal member and Su Nu Nu Shinal dancer Jerry Pinola will speak about the historic and contemporary relationship between Russia and members of the Kashia tribe.

Paul C. Miller will have on display his photos of Su Nu Nu Shinal, the Native American dance group from the Kashia Pomo tribe from Fort Ross and the Northern Sonoma coastal region of California.

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