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MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES Crown Center hosts New York University professors

■ Professors discussed the political details and debates behind how foreign workers are treated in the Gulf.

By ELLA RUSSELL

JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The Crown Center for Middle Eastern Studies hosted ‘Making the Gulf: Regulating Movements and Politics’ over Zoom last Wednesday. New York University professors Natasha Iskander and Arang Keshavarzian discussed the politics behind the treatment of foreign workers in the Gulf.

Iskander presented her research gathered through hundreds of hours spent shadowing the Qatari workforce. She began by describing the dramatic development of the Qatari cityscape, comparing images from the 1960s to today. Qatar is pursuing a topdown strategy for development by defining “an idealized future” through plans like the National Development Vision 2030 and importing foreign workers to fit this future, Iskander said. She showed slides of Pearl Qatar, an artificial island created to resemble a string of pearls. She noted that there has been a recent burst of construction due to the World Cup later this year. For this event, the entirely foreign workforce created eight stadiums, all “outstanding design achievements,” according to Iskander.

Despite the achievement of these workers, Iskander said there is an entrenched system of exploitation maintained by the kafala system sponsorship which binds workers to employers. Because Qatari prides itself on cutting edge architectural innovation, construction workers are often required to operate extremely advanced construction technologies and apply very advanced construction skills. Since most construction workers enter the job with no prior construction skill, construction sites heavily invest in on-site training. However, the advanced technique of master scaffolders, welders, and other construction workers contrasts with widespread Qatari perceptions of their workforce as unskilled.

Iskander discussed the significance and implications of this label. She explained that the exploitation of workers labeled as unskilled has a history stretching back to the pearling industry starting around the turn of the 20th century, and the influence of the British indentured labor system, which set out explicit definitions for skilled and unskilled labor that had more to do with racial and ethnic categorizations rather than actual skill. Iskander noted that these methods of classifying workers on the basis of supposed merit are mirrored in other regions around the world, including immigration to the United States.

“The politics of skill shape all aspects of social and economic life,” Iskander said, noting that those labeled as unskilled are dehumanized and described as not having the full capacity for freedom. According to Iskander, “skill is the line that Qatar draws to distinguish between its past and its future… in the hopes that the workers who built Qatar would simply disappear.” The particular benefit of skill, Iskander argued, is that it works as a “seemingly apolitical justification for social stratification and technocracy.”

Iskander noted that prejudice against workers is also reflected in the segregation of residential areas by skill category. Blue collar bachelors were primarily housed in labor camps, with conditions that are well documented by the international press as unsafe. In 2015, Qatar opened a labor city, which provided housing for 100,000 workers. This housing is described as being in better condition, but the area is heavily monitored by CCTV cameras and security guards, phone and internet monitoring, checkpoints and no unsupervised entry. International journalists have not been able to obtain access to these areas. Iskander added that a 250,000 worker housing complex was coming online in 2022.

COVID-19 brought additional challenges for Qatari workers. On Mar. 11, 2020, with 238 cases in Qatar, there was a full lockdown of the industrial area, known as a “cordon sanitaire.” “Here we see the most dramatic expression of the exclusionary condition of Qatar,” Iskander said. She explained that conditions for contagion were high within the industrial city, while outside the cordon sanitaire, Qatar was a model for healthcare in the world.

Discussing resistance to this prejudicial regime against workers, Iskander noted that every site she visited had experienced wildcat strikes––strikes without the authorization of union membership––although the strikes were buried by the press. Combinations of international and domestic condemnation have also worked to improve conditions. However, Iskander noted that Qatari reforms have been relatively minimal. Migrant workers received a minimum wage increase from $200 to $275 for a month of full-time work, and workers are now allowed to change jobs. However, they cannot move around very easily due to the heavy surveillance in place. “Compared to other countries, these reforms are not remarkable,” concluded Iskander, contrasting Qatari reforms with that of the United Arab Emirates, which she argues has made a more meaningful attempt at reform due to their lack of emphasis on controlling space for their migrant workers.

Offering a geographical angle to the discussion, Keshavarzian presented his ongoing research of the Persian Gulf, namely, how and why it was conceived of as a region. Regions are often considered to be static spaces that cluster countries within relatively clear borders and set them apart from other regions, Keshavarzian said. He argued that this assumption is what leads to political battles over nomenclature of the Gulf as Persian or Arab and discussion of the Gulf as a region vital to the global economy.

Such assumptions obscure the dynamic nature of the land, according to Keshavarzian. He discussed how his early experiences in the Gulf region in 2001 gave him a conception of the region as an active space. In Iran, when waiting for a motorboat to take them to the nearby island of Kish, he saw a group of people waiting in the shade, with clothing that suggested a humble background. By context, he suspected that they were organized by smugglers to transport goods from Kish, a free trade zone, to the mainland. He visited Bastak, Iran and found out that the city was the product of circular migration between Bastak and the Eastern Arabian coast, specifically Dubai.

In Dubai, in 2001, he saw another group of men that appeared to be from South Asia waiting in the airport to have their work permits inspected. He explained that this group was part of the beginning of the construction boom in Dubai and Qatar. These workers would clean offices, serve as nurses, and take care of the children of jetsetters.

Keshavarzian concluded that instead of being a “two-dimensional homogeneous unitary entity… [the Gulf region] involves multiple actors, a splintering of spaces and the proliferation of bordering and bordering practices.” Gulf regionalisms are intertwined with multiple geographic scales and regions are often co-produced along with nations, cities, empires, and individual identities. Keshavarzian concluded that the Gulf’s role as the “umbilical cord of the free world” never completely overwrites 19th century littoral society that brings people in the Gulf together.

He argued that these traces “are threads through which we can imagine a remaking of the gulf in the future.”

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Architect explores “post-concreteness”

■ Galen Pardee ’11 presented his research for the Richard Saivetz ’69 Annual Memorial Architectural Lecture Series.

By HANNAH TAYLOR

JUSTICE EDITOR

Architecture and the materials we build with are changing with global warming. At a lecture sponsored by the Fine Arts department, Architect Galen Pardee ’11 discussed his theory of “post-concreteness,” an idea that raises questions of the future use of limited resources and materials, like concrete, in architecture, as well as the role architects play today. Pardee presented his research to the Brandeis community on Feb. 7 as part of the Richard Saivetz ’69 Annual Memorial Architectural Lecture Series. He is currently a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, as well as the director of Drawing Agency, a design and research studio.

Pardee first spoke about his research involving the concrete industry in Singapore, the largest per capita importer of sand in the world. Through a project titled “Territories of Territory Extraction,” Pardee traced the path that sand travels through Singapore and how the country utilizes it in its industry and development, using maps, photographs, and satellite imagery.

Singapore relies heavily on concrete, which is produced from sand, for its building structures and for artificially expanding its coastline, Pardee explained. Singapore uses so much sand that it must import the material from other nearby countries, many of whom have since banned its export there. One such country is Indonesia. Pardee said that in the early 2000s, sand miners caused an entire island to virtually disappear. “Sand is possibly the second most extracted material on the plant after only water. And again, it’s nonrenewable, [so] we are running out of it,” he said. “If you took our best guess at all of the gravel and sand that was brought out of the earth in this year and put it all in a pile, it would be 27 meters wide, 27 meters tall, and [would] circle the earth.”

Concrete is an easy material to access, use, and train labor forces to construct with, which is why it remains in use and is a “pervasive and cultural material,” Pardee said. However, as evident by the pressures on Singapore’s sand supply, concrete is not a sustainable source.

Here is where Pardee’s “postconcreteness” comes into play––he wonders how the changing climate and limitations on resources will affect architectural design in the future, and how this will impact countries that rely heavily on such materials despite the environmental consequences. Pardee said that the impact of Singapore’s concrete industry and desire to expand its coastline are harmful to both the environment and geopolitics. For instance, he explained, sand dredging and shoreline reconstruction destroy natural habitats and will lead to flooding with sea levels rising, and physically expanding the country’s land mass and interfering with the territory of neighboring states has caused international legal issues. The future of architecture must involve an environmentally conscious approach to rethinking how finite resources are used.

The next research project that Pardee spoke about was the “Great Lakes Architectural Expedition,” which also studied geopolitical boundaries in relation to architecture. The Great Lakes, which contain 80% of the water in North America and 20% of the entire world’s fresh water supply, have strict rules regarding how the water can be used, in order to ensure its protection. Pardee said that this has become a source of disagreement in the past, with only certain towns and businesses near the Great Lakes being granted access to water. Through this project, Pardee worked in Toledo, Ohio to design a model of a unique architecture office that would be built near the watershed. Pardee said that the challenge of this design project was “how do you rethink what the office looks like once you’ve taken away a lot of the standard trappings of what architects do.” Pardee also designed a topographic map of phosphorus deposits in Toledo and Lake Erie, because runoff due to agriculture is a prevalent problem among farmers in the Great Lakes region, and he designed a model for a 30 mile long public park that would bring in more green space instead of an industrial office complex.

Lastly, Pardee presented his most recent projects––renovations of a New York City apartment and a historical house in Leadville, Colorado. Continuing with the idea of “post-concreteness,” Pardee explained that what he sees as modern and sustainable architecture challenges his usual perceptions. “[I] accept maybe a less concrete idea of a design or intervention and try to sort of work with existing conditions as much as possible,” he said. “You probably heard it before, but ‘the most sustainable building is a building that already exists.’”

For the apartment in New York, Pardee redesigned and renovated the kitchen, with the goal of keeping and utilizing as much of the existing material as possible for a less wasteful project. For instance, he said that he added new doors and cabinets for better storage, but did so by designing them to be built over the existing wall space. He added that he also opened the floor plan up as much as possible, but made sure not to disturb the building’s electrical and pipe systems, which would have made for a more complicated, expensive, and unnecessary undertaking. “The other benefit of this is that it allowed us to really focus our time, attention, and money on the things that really need fixing, rather than spreading ourselves very thin,” Pardee said.

Similarly, for the house in Colorado, Pardee used the existing structure of the house itself in his architectural plan, and only completely renovated what was necessary, such as leaking roofs and a lack of a solid foundation. Built around two sets of stairs, the house had a unique design, which Pardee said he worked with to allocate storage space and areas for building utilities. Furthermore, Pardee had to follow the regulations set by the town’s historical commission, making working with existing architecture even more important.

“I want to go back to this question of what I’m calling post-concreteness,” Pardee said. “I think this has been, for me, still sort of like a working definition, but I hope as you guys move forward with your own architectural interest or education…it’s worth interrogating the received knowledge that we get about what we do as architects and where we make our difference,” he concluded.

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NON-PROFIT: BaselineMed supports pre-med BIPOC students DEI: Univ. welcomes new leadership

CONTINUED FROM 1

lege students, medical students, physicians, and medical professionals. The articles focus on the varying authors’ experiences in their respective fields. The organization gives a platform to those voices that are so frequently left out of the medical community, giving them a voice while also providing mentors, role models, and connections to BIPOC students interested in medicine.

BaselineMed additionally holds free educational workshops for students, which are constantly changing as they are tailored to the community’s needs. Previous workshops have included panels from doctors, how to manage stress, and learning to create a schedule in college. According to BaselineMed’s website, the purpose of their workshops is to “elaborate on any knowledge participants may have, introduce new ideas and concepts to support the academic journeys of participants, and clarify any misconceptions workshop participants might have.”

When Ghalili had the idea to start BaselineMed, she reached out to a number of fellow students and peers who she thought would be interested. They all worked together to build the organization from the ground up. Leah Naraine ’22, associate director of BaselineMed, spoke to the Justice on Feb. 3 for an interview. When asked what drew her to joining BaselineMed, she said, “I was particularly attracted to [the organization] because of the way that it highlighted the importance of diverse students and the importance of providing support for a diverse student body pursuing medicine.”

When asked about what the future of BaselineMed might look like, Naraine stated, “Serving a diverse community doesn’t have a singular solution. It requires a lot of different aspects of support. So for us, that looks like being able to continue to provide workshops for high school students, possibly college students in the future andto provide that layer of support. We want to maintain the articles and stories that we post because we think that having insight from those perspectives are incredibly important to hear, what it's like as a college student, as a medical student, as a physician, or all different stages in the journey.”

Naraine truly wanted to emphasize what is at the root of the organization: “[BaselineMed] was started by a diverse group of students and is still run by a diverse group of students, so we take that perspective and try our best to provide support based on the gaps that we saw.”

BaselineMed achieved non-profit status from the state of New York in November, an impressive accomplishment and something the leadership team had been discussing and working towards for a long time.

BaselineMed currently has nine members on their team, but Naraine said the organization is still building itself, and they would be happy to have Brandeis students “of any background who feel that they have something really important that they want to contribute and be part of a team of leaders in doing so.” Students interested in learning more about BaselineMed or getting involved can find them at baselinemed.com or @baseline_ med on Instagram.

—Editor’s note: Emma Ghalili ’22 is a senior staff writer for the Justice. She did not contribute to or edit this article.

BIPOC REPRESENTATION

CONTINUED FROM 1

Bitsóí has experience recruiting and supporting underrepresented minority groups, specifically in the sciences, which is ideal for Brandeis because, as Fierke said in the BrandeisNow article, “Enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion in our science labs, our art studios, our performance spaces, and our classrooms is an ongoing effort at Brandeis.”

Out of all of the candidates the committee viewed over the sixmonth national search, “Lee stood out for his thoughtful interactions with our students, and the respect he showed for their concerns during his campus conversations. We are very pleased to welcome him to Brandeis,” said Singh in the BrandeisNow article.

Bitsóí will transition into the role in mid-March.

The Brandeis community can look forward to his arrival; according to President Liebowtiz in his email, “Lee is a skilled diversity, equity, and inclusion leader and administrator, and he will bring to Brandeis his extensive experience in collaborating with students, faculty, and staff to implement diversity-driven initiatives, policies, and programming.”

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MEDICINE: BaselineMed's founders pose left to right Fatim Kragbe '23, Emma Ghalil '22, Jonathan Joasil '22, and Leah Naraine '22.

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Send an email to Sofia Gonzalez at editor@thejustice.org Contact Jacklyn Goloborodsky and Hannah Taylor at news@thejustice.

8 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2022 ● FEATURES ● THE JUSTICE justfeatures

ON THIS DAY…

On Feb. 8, 1973, the U.S. Senate approved the creation of a special committee to investigate the Watergate incident.

FUN FACT

The longest wedding dress train is over five miles long.

Contamination without communication?

University leaves students and staff out of the loop about high lead levels and water fountain closures

The Justice spent multiple months investigating reports of lead contamination in drinking water on campus and speaking to concerned students and faculty, as well as Manager of Environmental Health and Safety, Andrew Finn.

By ARIELLA WEISS

JUSTICE EDITOR On Sept. 22, 2021, chemistry and biochemistry students and professors received an email with the subject line “IMPORTANT! Do NOT consume water from the faucets in EdisonLecks” from Meghan Hennelly, a Chemistry department administrator and manager of space and buildings for the division of Science at the University. Sent via a listserv titled “chemall-group,” those on the email blast were some of the first students to receive official word about lead levels in various buildings around campus. Attached to Hennelly’s correspondence was a notice from Brandeis’ Facilities Services Director Lori Kabel. Kabel said that Facilities Services had been working with Environmental Health and Safety to perform random sampling on water from water fountains in various buildings across campus. She explained that water testing is performed periodically throughout the year, but was performed at an increased rate over the summer and early fall due to COVID-19 and the return of employees to campus. She stated, “Unfortunately, the results in Brown [Social Science Center] and Edison-Lecks [Science Building] read higher than the Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for lead. For this reason, we will be turning off all of the water fountains in both Brown and EdisonLecks until we can come up with the cause and solution to rectify this issue.” On Dec. 16, in response to the Justice’s interview request and list of questions originally directed towards Facilities, Andrew Finn, manager of EHS, provided a statement on Kabel’s behalf. “As we transitioned back to on-campus activities, the [University] administration, operations, and Environmental Health and Safety had concerns about drinking water having been sitting with little or no flow for an extended period of time,” Finn said, and explained, “Buildings [were] identified as possibly being at risk due to the age of the plumbing materials … and [we] proceeded with three rounds of testing.” He did not provide information requested by the Justice about the dates that this testing occurred, a list of buildings that had been tested, or the results of this testing. Finn explained the federal standards used to identify lead-contaminated water: “The testing did identify lead levels in water samples from water bubblers which exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency ‘action level’ of 15 micrograms/liter (parts per billion).” The “action level” is the threshold for acceptable lead levels in drinking water, “which indicates to the water supplier that there is a need for corrective and preventive actions to identify the source(s) of lead and reduce exposures,” Finn said.

Testing begins

It appears that testing began as early as June, when students were largely off campus for the summer recess. A student who worked in the psychology labs of Brown over the summer explained to the Justice that they had received a notice in June instructing people working in the building not to drink the water. They added that there were signs put up in Brown’s bathrooms saying the same and that a water dispenser was implemented. However, Prof. Sarah Lamb (ANTH) explained to the Justice on Feb. 7 that during the first weeks of the fall semester, there were neither signs at the fountains nor a dispenser in the building. Lamb continued, “Early in the fall semester, there were signs put up saying ‘water is unsafe’ at the fountains and in the bathrooms … but no other water source was given to us for some time. We had to bring water from home or go thirsty.” Since then, Lamb added, a dispenser was installed, but that “The first period in the fall when we had no drinking water in the building was tough, and added to the general sense of pandemic strangeness and disarray.”

Follow-up testing

On Oct. 22, Hennelly forwarded an email she had received from Finn that same day to the “chemall-group” listserv. Finn’s email was sent to building operations administrators for the Psychology, Anthropology, Physics, Mathematics, Judaic Studies, and Library departments, along with Hennelly. In this email, Finn detailed an additional round of water testing EHS had done on various water sources in buildings across campus on Oct. 1 and Oct. 5 — including water sources in Edison-Lecks and Brown other than the fountains that had been confirmed to have tested positive for increased lead levels in the months prior. These buildings also included the Lown Center for Judaic Studies, the Goldfarb-Farber Library, Abelson-BassYalem (which houses the department of physics), and Goldsmith (which houses the department of mathematics). Finn’s Oct. 22 email to building administrators said, “Results for all locations indicate that the lead levels are below the EPA recommended action level and all locations are safe for consumption.” Finn wrote, “I hope that this additional information provides a level of comfort … the water sources tested in this phase are all safe.” Lois Stanley, the vice president for campus operations, was cc’ed on this email. Information about September’s lead testing that found unsafe levels of lead in water sources in multiple buildings was not communicated to the general student body at any point, nor was the information that EHS sent out to school and department administrators in October about the results of the followup in other water sources that found lead levels to be safe in these locations. Some students have criticized the school’s lack of communication with students about the ongoing testing and fountain closures. “It’s ridiculous,” said Maddie Silverberg ’24. “Everyone knows this is a problem but we haven’t gotten a formal document from the University saying what they’re doing or where to avoid.” In his brief to the Justice in December Finn stated, “Our third round of testing confirmed that sources away from the bubblers were/are safe,” to which the Justice asked what assurances students have that the affected fountains will be safe to drink from once they are replaced. On Jan. 26 he wrote back: “Once Facilities Operations gets things replaced, yes I will do another round of testing at those locations [to assure the water’s safety].” Besides the Brown building and Edison-Lecks, no other buildings have been “identified as areas of concern,” Finn answered in response to the Justice’s question of whether students should be made aware of any other buildings testing positive for lead. “My understanding is that … water fountains that were identified [as testing positive for lead] have been shut off and continue to stay off or have been physically removed,” he stated. In Brown and Edison-Lecks, units remain off or have warning signs attached.

Farber fountain closures

The Justice asked Kabel explicitly about the library’s drinking water, in addition to asking about the Brown building. “In response to your request directly … the Brown building was identified as being at risk,” Finn said on Kabel’s behalf. The request for information about whether the library was part of the testing program was disregarded entirely. In his Oct. 22 email to school and department administrators, Finn said that testing performed on the sink in the bathroom on the first floor of Farber determined that water from this source was safe to drink. The water fountain directly outside of this bathroom remained on, with students using it, for another week. Thom Valcemetti, one of the library’s public service coordinators, spoke with the Justice on Nov. 10, explaining that, “A week ago [week of Nov. 1] Facilities came and turned off the water fountain in Farber 1.” A sign was put up on Nov. 10 instructing students not to drink the water. It was gone by the following afternoon. Rafi Levi ’24, a student library worker, spoke with the Justice on Jan. 28. He added that the water fountain on the third level of Farber, adjacent to the Sound and Image Media Studios, had been out of commission since the beginning of the fall semester, and added, “There was a time towards the end of the fall semester that all three fountains were turned off at once. We had to walk to Usdan if we wanted water.” The SIMS fountain remains off with a warning sign, similar to those in Brown and Edison-Lecks. Kabel explained in the Sept. 22 email that “Although you might see some random water fountains turned off throughout campus, there could be many reasons for this. Sometimes the issue is a broken part, sometimes it is an isolated problem that can be fixed by replacing a fixture or fountain, and sometimes it is just waiting for test results to return.” This information suggests that contaminated water is not necessarily the reason for fountains being closed and would likely be reassuring to students. However, the majority of the student body — including student workers in the library, where multiple fountain closures have occurred over the past months — have not been made aware of this or received any explanation about testing practices and a variety of reasons for fountains being shut off. When asked how he felt about the University’s lack of communication regarding the fountain closures, Levi said, “Like the University doesn’t care about the students or any of the people affected.” Student Union Senator Sofia Lee ’24 echoed this sentiment in a Jan. 28 correspondence with the Justice: “I’m definitely very concerned with what’s happening with the water filters as a lot of people don’t feel safe using them.” Valcemetti said he was unaware that buildings around campus were being tested for lead: “When Facilities came to turn off the water [in Farber 1] they didn’t tell us anything except that the fountain had ‘failed inspections.’ At this point you students know as much as we do.”

Timeline unclear

EHS is taking procedural steps to addressing the buildings affected by lead, which they explained in their brief to the Justice. In an Oct. 14 article in The Brandeis Hoot, Kabel was quoted as saying: “Facilities and Environmental Health and Safety tested the water to ensure our levels were within standards after being idle so long in order to protect our staff and students. When levels were high, we took action accordingly. The safety of our students and staff is our #1 priority and this is one step we take to ensure it remains our priority.” Finn ended his brief to the Justice by explaining EHS and Facilities’ plans going forward: “Extensive flushing of the lines was also done which is an acceptable and generally one of the first corrective actions in this case … one of our biggest hurdles at the moment is the lead time on getting new equipment, but it is in process.”

There is no clear timeline as to when this will happen, though, and supply chain backups are out of both EHS and Facilities’ control. A student worker at Facilities said the same, explaining it currently takes up to two months for a manufacturer to send a replacement part. “Sometimes we even have to use eBay,” they added. Supply chain issues notwithstanding, the student facilities worker added the office’s own delays in addressing fountain repairs: “Our office [Facilities] is insanely disorganized,” they said. “When something happens with a water fountain and I assign a plumber to it, it could be a week until someone actually looks at the [work] order.” “They are planning to do major renovations on our building [Brown] beginning April, and so we all will be temporarily removed from our offices by around April or May through at least December 2022,” Prof. Lamb explained. The student worker at the Brown building psychology lab said that psychology lab operations have been temporarily moved out of the Brown building, with no definite timeline of when the fountains will be replaced.

Communication concerns

With students having received no statement on lead testing results and fountain closures from the University, rumors about contaminated water — based on the limited information provided to some students and speculation prompted by the warnings taped haphazardly to various fountains — have been floating around the student body over the course of the school year. “We’re already trying to stay safe in a global pandemic. To be at a school with a $75,000 tuition and feel unsafe in basic health measures is very worrying,” a neuroscience major from the class of 2024 told the Justice on Jan. 31. While not as worrying to her as the lead itself, the student said she finds the lack of communication from the school about lead levels and closed fountains concerning. “It makes it seem mismanaged. At the end of the day, all we’re asking for is transparency. No one would blame Brandeis; lead isn’t in their control. Communicating [to students] is.” Noah Risley ’24, director of communications for the Student Union, said, “The Student Union has continually brought up the communication issues with the University and looks forward to seeing progress this semester.” Whether the University will communicate with the student body once the fountains are replaced by Facilities and re-tested by EHS — and bring to an end to the continued radio silence that concerned students have received from their University administration up until this point — remains to be seen.

Brandeis professors explain the situation in Ukraine: “The people of Ukraine have a right to self determination that doesn’t get to simply be run over with Russian tanks”

The Justice talked to Prof. Gary Samore (POL) and Prof. Steven Wilson (POL) about the situation currently unfolding in Ukraine and the state of foreign relations between Russia, Ukraine, and the US.

By MESHULAM UNGAR

JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

According to the New York Times, senior Biden administration officials last week told Congress that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has assembled everything he would need to undertake … the largest military operation on land in Europe since 1945.” The Justice spoke with two Brandeis faculty members, Gary Samore (POL) via email and Steven Wilson (POL) in person, to provide some insight to this complex situation.

Samore served as the White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction from 2009-13 and was a key advisor to President Obama on these issues. In that capacity, he was part of major negotiations with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles. He is currently the professor of the practice of politics and the director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis.

Wilson, an assistant professor of politics, specializes in Russia and the post-Soviet states in addition to the effects of the internet on politics.

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Prof. Samore:

The Justice: When you served in the National Security Council under President Obama, I imagine you saw then-vice president Biden in the Situation Room. Could you describe what he is like under pressure during foreign policy crises?

Samore: In my experience, Vice President Biden was a great asset to President Obama. He always offered independent and straightforward (and sometimes profane) advice on foreign policy issues, even if others disagreed. Biden has an excellent sense of the personalities of foreign leaders he deals with and a strong commitment to working with U.S. allies. So far, these qualities have served him well in dealing with Putin and the Ukraine crisis.

TJ: You helped negotiate nuclear weapons treaties with Russia a little more than a decade ago. Right now, a State Department team led by the deputy secretary, Wendy Sherman, is negotiating with the Russians. Could you describe what it is like to negotiate with the Russian government? I know the situations are not exactly analogous, but I think it is helpful to give color to the sort of people who represent Russia to the US.

S: Russian arms control officials (like Wendy Sherman’s counterpart Deputy Minister Sergei Ryabkov) are expert professional negotiators. They understand the technical issues and are prepared to explore compromises, within the limits of their instructions. The current situation with Ukraine is very different because ... Putin is personally calling the shots and only he knows whether Russia is prepared to use military force to achieve his goals. In other words, the policy professionals in the Russian Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry don’t have much latitude to negotiate, unless Putin decides to strike a deal.

TJ: If there is a diplomatic solution — either short term or long term — can the Russians be trusted to hold to agreements based on your experience with them? Are there good accountability mechanisms?

S: If some kind of deal is reached, it won’t satisfy Putin’s basic demands that Ukraine be banned from joining NATO nor will it prevent Kiev from continuing to improve relations with the U.S. and Europe, including military cooperation. Therefore, I don’t expect a permanent settlement of the Ukraine issue. As long as Putin (or his successor) continues to see the West as fundamentally hostile, seeking to weaken Russian security and undermine its government, any agreements on Ukraine and broader issues of European security are likely to be temporary.

TJ: For someone who has lived through the Soviet Union, its collapse, Russia’s indirection in the 90s, and now Putin’s rise, what has stood out to you from watching the history play out?

S: The most important historical trend is Russia’s failure to evolve into a democratic state with genuine political freedoms and rights. Under Putin, Russia has emerged as an atavistic, authoritarian state, with a deep sense of insecurity and hostility towards the West. Unfortunately, I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Prof. Wilson:

TJ: Why does this frozen tundra of eastern Ukraine matter to Americans?

Wilson: I think the most important part is that Ukraine is a democracy. They may be a flawed democracy in a lot of ways, but they’re an independent country that has democratic institutions in a world where democracy is often in retreat, and that’s something that should be protected and defended. And that’s not me necessarily saying we should have American [troop] divisions on the ground in eastern Ukraine, but it’s the idea [that] we have an obligation on some ethical level to defend democracies that want to run their own affairs and be their own place. And fundamentally this comes down to Russia not wanting that for Ukraine. Putin is very hostile to the sovereignty of Ukraine and the rights of the Ukrainian people to elect their own government and have democracy in the first place. So without turning it into some Cold War rehash, there really is an element of democracy versus authoritarianism. The people of Ukraine have a right to self determination that doesn’t get to simply be run over with Russian tanks.

TJ: We often think of current events in the context of a period of time, and then we base our analysis on what happened in that time. In history, it’s called “periodization”. The Ukraine situation is often framed within the past few months, or in the past eight years (when in 2014, Russia forcibly took Crimea and supported anti-Ukrainian militants in the country’s east). In thinking about the current situation, at which point(s) in history does it make the most sense to begin analyzing what is happening now?

W: I think [that in] terms of the Ukraine crisis you have to go way back. Not quite to the beginning of time, but you have to appreciate the very long history of Ukraine and its relationship with Russia. There is a very strong sense among a lot of Russians, in particular Russian power holders like Putin and the various military and intelligence folks, who simply don’t see Ukraine as a legitimate, sovereign country. They see Ukraine as simply being part of Russia, and they have their historical mythic perspective of the founding city of Russia as Kiev [Ukraine’s current capital]. It’d be like telling the English that London is part of a separate country that is not English.

TJ: No country is a monolith. Can you speak a little bit to the internal politics in Ukraine, and the different views in that country towards this situation?

W: The west side of Ukraine is far more oriented towards Western Europe and central Europe, not just physically, but historically and culturally and politically. And running right down the middle you’ve got the major river [Dnieper] where Kiev sits. You can look at essentially any map of Ukraine where you regionally map something — whether it’s the GDP, presidential vote share, who voted for what party, education rates, ethnic breakdown of where it’s majority Ukrainian versus majority ethnic Russians, etc. — all the maps look the same. It’s a split of two countries in a certain sense. The eastern part of it has historically been part of the Russian Empire, going back far, far longer in time.

TJ: For Brandeis students interested in learning more about the situation in Ukraine, what resources should they look to?

W: The Council on Foreign Relations and Wilson Center has some good coverage of events in Ukraine. In addition, for some news out of Russia proper, the independent news site Meduza has some great coverage.

Photo Courtesy of CREATIVE COMMONS WORLD LEADERS: (From left) President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Emmanuel Macron of France, former chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine pictured on Dec. 10, 2019.