Alumna Fazola Nasretdinova to Present her AGS Master's Research at UC Berkeley, US

Fazola Nasretdinova (M.A., Class of 2017) has been accepted to present her AGS Master’s research at two upcoming conferences: the “Tenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts and Responses”, to be held at the University of Berkeley, United States on April 20-21, 2018, and the “Eleventh Global Studies Conference”, to be held at the University of Granada, Spain on July 30-31, 2018.

Fazolat’s thesis, on which her paper is based, is entitled “The Arctic Region: From Confrontation to Long-Term Cooperation. A Case Study of Russia and Western Arctic Nations”, and was successfully defended in May 2017 in Paris, before a jury comprised or her advisor Dr. Ruchi Anand, along with H.E. Lawrence Cannon, then Ambassador of Canada to France, and AGS Professor Steve McGiffen, who specializes in environmental issues.

This research provides an in-depth analysis of the policies and prospects for cooperation between Russia and the Western Arctic nations in the Arctic region, which has received increased global interest due to its natural resources and geopolitical implications. Current relations between Western Arctic nations and Russia may be characterized as tense and non-cooperative, with no single structure for cooperation that might unify their interests. In addition, due to the political context and disagreements regarding Russian foreign policy, the Western Arctic nations boycott Russia and prevent cooperation, which recalls some aspects of the Cold War period, cultivating misperceptions and eroding trust between the West and Russia.  In her thesis and paper, Fazolat asks whether, in that context, cooperation is possible, and whether it is desirable.

Read Fazola's Alumni Story published on the AGS website in July 2016