Professor John Laughland gave a lecture entitled ‘Russia and the West: philosophical and political reasons for contradictions and conflicts’.
On September 16, 2014 Professor John Laughland gave a lecture entitled ‘Russia and the West: philosophical and political reasons for contradictions and conflicts’. This lecture is the first in an international cycle entitled ‘Time for Russia’ which has been organised by the Foundation for Civil Society Development in collaboration with the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
Political scientist Leonid Polyakov, Head of the Department of Political Science in the Higher School of Economics and member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights, acted as a moderator for the event and in his opening remarks he outlined the main goals and objectives of the ‘Time for Russia’ project to the large audience.
Polyakov stressed the importance of studying the events of the first decade of the twenty first century in the history of modern Russia. This was a period of economic growth and the development of political institutions in our country and offered a new role for Russia in the international arena.
Having given his speech, Leonid Polyakov introduced the speaker: Professor Laughland who is an English philosopher, historian and Research Director of the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation in Paris. He is also one of the founders of the British Helsinki Human Rights Group and a researcher at the Centre for History of Central Europe at the Sorbonne. John Laughland frequently acts as an observer at elections in post Soviet countries and has worked for many years as an independent expert on international relations.
In his speech, Professor Laughland outlined his vision of the causes of the current crisis between Russia and the West. He believes that it can be traced back to the 90’s and drew parallels between the conflicts in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Georgia, Syria and now Ukraine. He said that the United States has portrayed itself as the harbinger of peace in all these areas of conflict. ‘It is hard to overestimate the role of stupidity, plain stupidity in foreign policy which continues to drive the West’ he said.
