The Kennan Institute of the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Wash ...

was founded in 1974 to carry out studies of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

(

Sovietology Kremlinology is the study and analysis of the politics and policies of the Soviet Union while Sovietology is the study of politics and policies of both the Soviet Union and former communist states more generally. These two terms were synonymous unt ...

), and subsequently of post-Soviet

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and other

post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

. The institute is widely regarded as the foremost institute for advanced Russia studies in the United States. The institute is named after

George Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histo ...

, an American explorer of Russia and the twice removed older cousin of Ambassador

George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...

is best known as the author of The Long Telegram and the

X Article The "X Article" is an article, formally titled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct", written by George F. Kennan and published under the pseudonym "X" in the July 1947 issue of ''Foreign Affairs'' magazine. The article widely introduced the term " ...

, and by extension the author of America's

containment Containment was a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. The name was loosely related to the term ''cordon sanitaire'', which wa ...

policy toward the Soviet Union. Ambassador Kennan, together with Wilson Center Director James Billington and historian

S. Frederick Starr Stephen Frederick Starr (born March 24, 1940) is an American expert on Russian and Eurasian affairs, a musician, and a former president of Oberlin College. Founder and chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, he is fluent in Russian a ...

, initiated the establishment of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center. In addition to its office in Washington, the Kennan Institute operates an office in

Kyiv, Ukraine Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

. Kennan's Kyiv office provides on-the-ground assistance to the Washington staff and a communication link with various Ukrainian organizations. The office also organizes publications, seminars, and conferences on major events of the day featuring Kennan Institute alumni.

Activities

The institute offers residential scholarships in the humanities and social sciences to academic scholars and specialists from government, the media, and the private sectors. Thanks to its location in Washington, D.C., scholars at the Kennan Institute have access to libraries, archives, research facilities, and human resources that are among the finest in the world. The institute also administers an active program of public lectures and conferences featuring scholars and public figures from the United States, Ukraine, Russia, and other states from the region. The institute makes the results of its activities known through a variety of publications including Meeting Reports, Occasional Papers, Special Reports, and commercially published books.

Research areas

Most recent research topics include * Religion in Post-Soviet Societies * Migration in the Post-Soviet space

Cooperation

The Kennan Institute is a partner of the Russian and Eurasian Security Specialized Network (RES) of the international

Center for Security Studies (CSS) The Center for Security Studies (CSS) is a center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, which focuses on Swiss and international security. Overview The center was founded by Prof. Dr. Kurt Spillmann in 1986 and has been led ...

, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. The Kennan Institute cooperated with the ISE Center (Information. Scholarship. Education.),

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, in administering the Centers for Advanced Study and Education (CASE) program. The CASE program, launched with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, established nine thematic research centers at regional Russian universities in order to foster scholarship in the social sciences and humanities.About the Kennan Institute
Wilson Center webpage

Management

*Director: Matthew RojanskyMatthew Rojansky
/ref> *Deputy Director: William Pomeranz

References

{{Authority control Smithsonian Institution Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States Soviet Union–United States relations Realist think tanks Russian studies