The Committee for the Republic is non-partisan. We invite you to a discussion about Russia in the real world beyond our borders and close to Russia’s, the U.S. government’s recent interactions with the Russian government, the trends these interactions are producing, and what might be done to mitigate the perils these represent.

Mention Russia these days to any American and you’re likely to find yourself in an increasingly uncivil argument about the American -- not the Russian -- condition. Americans -- except, of course, our president -- seem to think that Vladimir Putin is a nasty man. Everyone has a deeply entrenched opinion about what he and his fellow Russians did or didn’t do to skew our 2016 elections one way or the other. So anyone venturing an opinion about Russia or its policies is immediately assaulted by ankle-biting moralizers who insist on diverting the discussion into a fruitless debate about where Moscow sits in the taxonomy of evil.  

This makes it nearly impossible to have a dispassionate conversation about the challenges Russia poses to the United States. Believe what you want about what happened in 2016, Russia is a real country with real ambitions, armaments and politico-military abilities that affect Americans even when we’re not at the ballot box. As the late Philip K. Dick remarked: “Reality is what continues to exist whether you believe in it or not.” Russia is a case in point. Relations with it matter greatly to the United States. A serious national conversation on the subject is long overdue.

Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen has graciously agreed to lead this discussion. His book “WAR WITH RUSSIA: FROM PUTIN & UKRAINE TO TRUMP & RUSSIAGATE” will be available for sale.