Join us online for an insightful and timely roundtable discussion on the evolving landscape of civil society in Eurasia. In this virtual event, experts will discuss the shifting dynamics of U.S. foreign policy and its impact on Ukraine, Russia, and Central Asia. As geopolitical tensions grow and U.S. policies evolve, civil society organizations in these areas are playing a crucial role in navigating the complexities of change. Our panel of scholars and practitioners will explore how civil society actors across Eurasia are responding to these policy shifts. They will discuss how these voices are influencing the future of governance, human rights, and international relations in a rapidly changing world.

Elizabeth Plantan is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stetson University and a 2023-2025 Public Intellectuals Program (PIP) Fellow with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Previously, she was a 2022-2023 Wilson China Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC and a 2018-2020 China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Sebastien Peyrouse is Director of the Central Asia Program and Research Professor at IERES, George Washington University. His expertise includes Central Asian politics, socio-economic issues, Islam and religious minorities, and regional geopolitics with China, India, and South Asia. He held fellowships in Tashkent, Sapporo, and Washington (1998–2007), and was Senior Research Fellow (2008–2012) at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program (SAIS, Johns Hopkins) and the Institute for Security and Development Policy (Stockholm).

Sarah Wilson Sokhey (Ph.D., The Ohio State University, 2010) joined the faculty at the University of Colorado as an Assistant Professor in 2011. She specializes in comparative politics and political economy with a regional focus on countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, the Caucuses, and Central ASia. Her research examines welfare state and the politics surrounding public goods provision. Her 2017 book, The Political Economy of Pension Policy Reverals in Post-Communist Countries, won the Ed A. Hewett book prize for an outstanding publication on the political economy of Russia, Eurasia and/or Eastern Europe.

Regina Smyth is Professor of Political Science at Indiana University and a 2020-2021 Wilson Center Fellow. She studies the evolution of state-society relations and state responsiveness in autocratic and transitional regimes, focusing on elections, protest, and legislative decision-making. Her recent work explores the social response to state initiatives or suddenly imposed grievances and the mechanisms of blame attribution in information autocracies.