View source for RSI Connect: Russian Private Military Companies in Africa after Prigozhin

'''Date:''' September 21st, 2023 at 17:00 CET / 11:00 EDT  
'''Platform:''' Cisco Webex Webinars  

=== Link to Video Recording ===
[https://eucom.webex.com/eucom/ldr.php?RCID=90a768c904aabee864335db38717376d Link to Video Recording] -- Passcode: fH2Mpk7J

=== Details ===
RSI will host Kimberly Marten, Vanda Felbab-Brown, Samuel Ramani, and Ivan U. Klyszcz to discuss the role and the future trajectory of Russian Private Military Companies in Africa.

=== Biographies ===

==== Kimberly Marten ====
[[File:Photo_Kimberly_Marten.jpg|thumb|200px|Kimberly Marten]]  
'''Title:''' Professor of Political Science  
'''Affiliation:''' Barnard College, Columbia University  

Kimberly Marten is a professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University, specializing in international relations, international security, environmental politics, and Russia. She is a faculty member and executive committee member of Columbia’s Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies and Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. 

Her recent publications have analyzed Russia’s Wagner Group “private” military company (she was honored to testify before Congress on that topic in 2020 and 2022), Russian activities in Latin America, Russian activities in Africa, Russia/NATO relations, and the politics of the changing Arctic. She has written four books, including ''Engaging the Enemy: Organization Theory and Soviet Military Innovation'' (Princeton, 1993), which received the Marshall Shulman Prize, and ''Warlords: Strong-Arm Brokers in Weak States'' (Cornell, 2012). 

The Council on Foreign Relations commissioned her special report, ''Reducing Tensions between Russia and NATO'' (2017). In addition to her 30 academic journal articles and book chapters, she has written more than 50 policy analyses in publications such as ''The Washington Quarterly,'' ''Foreign Affairs online,'' ''War on the Rocks,'' ''Lawfare,'' ''The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog,'' ''The Huffington Post,'' ''The New York Times,'' ''The Guardian,'' ''The New York Daily News,'' and ''The New Republic.'' She earned her A.B. at Harvard and Ph.D. at Stanford.

==== Vanda Felbab-Brown ====
[[File:Photo_Vanda_Felbab_Brown.jpg|thumb|200px|Vanda Felbab-Brown]]  
'''Title:''' Senior Fellow  
'''Affiliation:''' Brookings Institution  

Vanda Felbab-Brown is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. She is also the director of Brookings’ Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and co-director of the Africa Security Initiative at Brookings. Previously, she was co-director of the Opioid Crisis in America: Domestic and International Dimensions. 

Dr. Felbab-Brown is an expert on international and internal conflicts, insurgency, terrorism, urban violence, and illicit economies. Her fieldwork has covered Afghanistan, South Asia, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Andean region, Mexico, Iraq, Somalia, the Horn of Africa, Nigeria, and other African regions. She is the author of five books, including ''Narco Noir: Mexico’s Cartels, Cops, and Corruption'' (forthcoming) and ''The Extinction Market: Wildlife Trafficking and How to Counter It'' (2017). She received her Ph.D. in political science from MIT and her B.A. in government from Harvard University.

==== Samuel Ramani ====
[[File:Photo_Samuel_Ramani.jpg|thumb|200px|Samuel Ramani]]  
'''Title:''' Associate Fellow  
'''Affiliation:''' Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)  

Dr. Samuel Ramani is an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and a tutor of politics at the University of Oxford. Samuel is the author of two books on Russian foreign policy: ''Russia in Africa: Resurgent Great Power or Bellicose Pretender?'' (Oxford University Press/Hurst, 2023) and ''Putin's War on Ukraine: Russia's Quest for Global Counter-Revolution'' (Oxford University Press/Hurst, 2023). 

Samuel is a regular contributor to major print media publications, such as ''Foreign Policy'' and ''The Washington Post,'' and to broadcast outlets, such as the BBC World Service, CNN International, and Al Jazeera English. He regularly advises major government agencies, such as the NATO Intelligence Fusion Center, NATO Headquarters, the UK FCDO, U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Department of Defense on international security issues.

==== Ivan U. Klyszcz ====
[[File:Photo_Ivan_Klyszcz.jpg|thumb|200px|Ivan U. Klyszcz]]  
'''Title:''' Research Fellow  
'''Affiliation:''' International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS), Estonia  

Dr. Ivan U. Klyszcz is a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Estonia. His research focuses on Russian foreign policy, security issues, and the role of private military companies in Africa. He frequently contributes to academic and policy discussions on Russia’s geopolitical strategies and their implications for global security.

=== Additional Resources ===
* '''[[Main Page#Calendar|Current Calendar]]'''  
* '''[[RSI Research|All RSI Research]]'''