RUSSIAN AND EURASIAN STUDIES

The Russian and Eurasian Studies (RES) program prepares students to understand the turbulent developments in Russia and the other countries of the former Soviet Union. Trends in that vast territory, which occupies one-sixth of the earth's land surface, continue to influence events in regions as distant as North America and East Asia. More than 280 million people in the world speak the Russian language. Like no other group of countries, the post-Soviet states are confronting simultaneously all of today’s “hot” issues: energy security, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, political Islam, democratization, creation of market systems, nationalism and ethnic strife, post-conflict reconstruction, labor migration, public health crises, and environmental degradation.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the European Union, the Central Intelligence Agency, many national governments, and numerous corporations and NGOs employ highly-trained specialists to analyze and influence developments in Russia and nearby parts of Eurasia.  Although more than a century ago the Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev wrote, “Umom Rossiyu ne ponyat”  (“The mind cannot understand Russia”), the Russian and Eurasian Studies Program helps its graduates grasp the turbulent development of this fascinating country and its closest neighbors.

Every year students and researchers from around the world –  from Japan and Hungary, South Korea and Poland, Turkey and Italy, Chad and  Estonia, Ukraine, the United States, and many other countries – come to participate in the Russian and Eurasian Studies program.

The size of the RES Program has been limited in order to ensure a high-quality educational experience for the students who enroll.  About a dozen new M.A. students enter the program every year, along with one or two new Ph.D. students.  Students have the opportunity to interact closely with RES faculty members.  RES courses typically include 8-10 students and are designed to promote the exchange of ideas among class members.  Stimulating conversation may also be found in the weekly “Newspaper and Pizza Seminar” that gathers to discuss the current Russian and Eurasian press, as well as over dinners with visiting scholars and at brown-bag lunches with Washington, D.C. specialists on the region. 

In addition, RES students have regular opportunities to hear prominent public figures address questions of current policy.  For example, in recent years SAIS students have had the opportunity to attend meetings with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, the foreign ministers of Russia and Kazakhstan, the prime minister of Georgia, and several Washington-based ambassadors from the region.

Internships
The RES Program relies mostly on its alumni and on Career Services to arrange internships for current students. During the past academic year, RES students received offers of local internships at the Kennan Institute of Advanced Russian Studies, the International Research and Exchanges Board, the World Bank, the Chechnya Justice Initiative and Population Services International.  During the summer, many students make their own arrangements for internships or travel. Some students take language immersion trips to the post-Soviet states.  Each summer the RES Program helps cover the cost of at least two in-country internships for RES concentrators.

Other Opportunities
Whenever possible, the RES Program helps students gain experience that supplements their formal course of study. RES concentrators were selected to serve as election observers during Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution,” and the RES Program helped them finance the trip. Other students served as OSCE observers during the parliamentary election in Kyrgyzstan and the presidential election in Belarus. Whenever students have an idea or request that can deepen their understanding of the region, the RES Program seeks to be of assistance.

SAIS graduates follow many different career paths.  Among the members of the Class of 2005, 37% took jobs in the private sector; 21% work for the U.S. and foreign governments; 13% gained employment in non-profit organizations; 15% have joined international organizations, 11% chose to study further, and 4% have recevied fellowships. RES graduates work in the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Treasury, the Congressional Research Service, the Eurasia Group, the World Bank, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Defense Intelligence Agency, public-interest organizations such as the National Security Archive, and financial firms such as Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers.  Michele Kelemen, who completed the RES Program in 1993, has been the chief National Public Radio correspondent reporting from Moscow for five years.

Study in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., is sometimes compared to a small town because of its tight-knit intellectual and political communities. The RES Program has well-established relationships with Washington’s many think tanks and educational institutions. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, George Washington and Georgetown universities and other organizations invite RES students to their events, and the RES Program invites students from other universities to its activities. Representatives from foreign embassies are frequent guests at SAIS seminars. The Voice of America and C-SPAN often cover lectures at SAIS.

Beyond SAIS’s walls, the city of Washington offers a rich assortment of related intellectual and cultural activities.  The Kennan Institute of Advanced Russian Studies  organizes regular presentations and colloquia by scholars from around the world, and it offers interested graduate students the opportunity to work as interns alongside the researchers in residence. 

The Russian and Eurasian program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a major center of research on the former Soviet Union, and its senior fellows often speak at SAIS. 

For students with a special flare for research, the Library of Congress offers one of the world’s greatest collections of primary source materials on Eurasia, along with a staff of skilled professionals ready to help with research problems

Students especially interested in policy-related research will find the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Heritage Foundation close at hand. 

Individuals with strong cultural interests can visit the Hillwood Museum, whose collections include many beautiful objects from early twentieth-century Russia.  The Hirshhorn Museum  and the National Gallery of Art house works by some of the Russian emigres who shaped the development of modern art in the United States.  Washington is also home to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the American Film Institute.

Over 10,000 Russian-speakers live in the Washington metropolitan area.  Bookstores with the latest Russian newspapers, grocery stores carrying black caviar, as well as Russian churches, clubs and restaurants have become a part of Washington, creating an aura that one experienced Washington Post correspondent called “Moscow on the Potomac.”

Last Updated July 27, 2007