Four Years On: Taking Stock of the Renewed Russian Invasion of Ukraine

As Russia's war against Ukraine ends its fourth year and enters its fifth, FPI Senior Fellow Daniel Serwer is convening a panel discussion with experts on the region to look at Ukraine's centuries long struggle with Russia, how the war is reshaping civil society in the country, and prospects for an end to the conflict.

(This is a hybrid event. Dr. Serwer and Dr. Van Metre will appear in person at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in DC, while Dr. Finkel and Dr. Radchenko will apear remotely from SAIS Bologna. Please register via Eventbrite to attend the in-person event. You can also watch via our livestream on YouTube at this link, no regsitration required: )

Daniel Serwer is a Senior Fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute. He is the author of Strengthening International Regimes: the Case of Radiation Protection (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024) as well as From War to Peace in the Balkans, the Middle East and Ukraine (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and Righting the Balance (Potomac Books, November 2013). He edited (with David Smock) Facilitating Dialogue (USIP, 2012) and supervised preparation of Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction (USIP, 2009). Guiding Principles is the leading compilation of best practices for civilians and military in post-war state-building.

As vice president of the Centers of Innovation at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Serwer led teams working on rule of law, peacebuilding, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance and gender. He was also vice president for peace and stability operations at USIP, overseeing its peacebuilding work in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq and Sudan and serving as executive director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group.

As a minister-counselor at the U.S. Department of State, Serwer directed the European office of intelligence and research and served as U.S. special envoy and coordinator for the Bosnian Federation, mediating between Croats and Muslims and negotiating the first agreement reached at the Dayton Peace Talks; from 1990 to 1993, he was deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, leading a major diplomatic mission through the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War.

Serwer is a graduate of Haverford College and earned masters degrees at the University of Chicago and Princeton, where he also did his PhD in history of science.

Eugene Finkel works at the intersection of political science and history. He was born in Ukraine and grew up in Israel. Finkel received a BA in Political Science and International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a PhD in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on how institutions and individuals respond to extreme situations: mass violence, state collapse, and rapid change.
Finkel's most recent book is Intent to Destroy: Russia's Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine (Basic Books, 2024). He is also the author of Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust (Princeton University Press, 2017), Reform and Rebellion in Weak States (Cambridge University Press, 2020, co-authored with Scott Gehlbach) and Bread and Autocracy: Food, Politics and Security in Putin’s Russia (Oxford University Press, 2023, co-authored with Janetta Azarieva and Yitzhak M. Brudny). His articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, East European Politics and Societies, Slavic Review, and several other journals and edited volumes. Finkel also published articles and op-eds in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, The Spectator and other outlets.

Sergey Radchenko is Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at SAIS Europe, and Director, Bologna Institute for Policy Research. Previously he was Professor of International Relations, Cardiff University. Radchenko has an international reputation for research on the history of the Cold War. He has written on Sino-Soviet relations, on Soviet and Chinese foreign policies, on atomic diplomacy, and on Cold War crises. In addition he has published work on North Korea and Mongolia and continues to have interests in the international politics of East and Central Asia and in contemporary Sino-Russian relations, Russian foreign policy, and Russia-NATO relations. He has served as a Global Fellow and a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre (in Washington D.C.), and as the Zi Jiang Distinguished Professor at East China Normal University (Shanghai). Currently his research interests center around the global history of the Cold War. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, National Interest, The Moscow Times, and other national and international media.

Dr. Lauren Van Metre is the President and CEO of Women In International Security (WIIS), bringing over two decades of experience as a leading expert in peace and security. Her distinguished career includes key roles at the U.S. Department of Defense, the State Department, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the National Democratic Institute, where she contributed to major conflict resolution and prevention initiatives. Her leadership has provided an invaluable contribution to policy and programming in some of the world’s most fragile and conflict-affected regions.

Prior to leading WIIS, Dr. Van Metre served as the head of the National Democratic Institute’s Peace, Security, and Democratic Resilience initiative, where she strengthened governance programs in states experiencing conflict and instability and foreign authoritarian influence. She also led the Institute’s Environmental Governance and Resilience (EGAR) initiative, reflecting her growing focus on the intersection of environmental change and political fragility. Her work has consistently emphasized the importance of fostering democratic resilience in the face of violence, climate disruption and foreign authoritarian manipulation.

At the State Department, Lauren served as the deputy office director for the Office of Kosovo Peace Implementation, leading an initiative on postconflict reconciliation and standing up an independent media. At the Pentagon, she was a special assistant to the Assistant Secretary for International Security Affairs, managing the Western Hemisphere and South Balkans Defense Ministerials.

Dr. Van Metre is a recognized authority on community resilience to violence and climate shocks. She has led field research and initiatives around the world and has published extensively on these topics. Some of her recent works include The War on NonProfits, Strengthening Democracy is a Better Counter-terrorism Strategy, From the Frontlines of Democracy in Ukraine, Deepening Understanding of Success and Failure in Postconflict Reconciliation, From Self Defense to Vigilantism: A Typology of Community Based Armed Groups, and Community Resilience to Violent Extremism in Kenya. Her pieces False Promises: The Authoritarian Development Models of China and Russia and The Trip from Donbas: Ukraine’s Pressing Need to Defend its Veterans were published as Issue Briefs for the Atlantic Council.

In addition to her role at WIIS, Dr. Van Metre is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. She is also a lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, where she teaches strategy and leadership in the Master’s in International Policy and Practice program. Dr. Van Metre holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Russian studies and an M.A. in Russian and East European Studies from Georgetown University.

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