Eurasia Policy Forum: Contemporary Political Myth and Reality in Eurasia

The Clements Center, in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Law and Democracy, Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and Strauss Center for International Security and Law, will host the “Eurasia Policy Forum: Contemporary Political Myth and Reality in Eurasia” on February 13, 2026 at the LBJ School of Public Affairs’ Bass Lecture Hall.

Registration opens in January 2026

Eurasian states face mounting challenges amid growing polarization, gaps between social needs and political responses, and disinformation blurring myth and reality. Further, Eurasian states face additional pressures from a legacy of authoritarian rule, active conflict and irredentism, and political mobilization of social divisions across the region. Yet Eurasian countries also have unique strengths in navigating these challenges, with strong national identities, robust civic engagement, bursts of democratic progress, and deep cultural traditions.

The conference explores the complicated social and political myths and realities shaping the contemporary Eurasian region, as they are poised to either discourage democratic progress or inspire civil society to action. Academic disciplines have each made progress in understanding the complex dynamics in their area of social, political, legal, or cultural study, yet these lessons are often stove-piped. Meanwhile, states—and students training to work in those states—must grapple with the intersection of challenges across all of these areas. This conference tackles this by bridging disciplines, bridging academic and policy spheres, and bridging policy and cultural studies to critically examine these pressing issues in Eurasia. Panels will be designed to foster discussion among experts from cultural studies, history, law, linguistics, policymaking, political science, sociology, and other fields.

The conference will be deeply interdisciplinary, fostering creative engagement on a diverse range of critical topics from state-building and democratic backsliding to construction of national heroes and majority-minority identities to technology’s role in the spread of these narratives.

Conference co-hosts include the Center for European Studies, the Center for Law and Democracy, the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, the Clements Center for National Security, the Department of Communication Studies, the Department of Government, the Department of Religious Studies, the Program in Comparative Literature, the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law.

For questions and additional information, please contact eurasiapolicyforum@gmail.com. We look forward to welcoming you to the University of Texas at Austin!

Agenda

8:15 am: Doors open

Coffee and light breakfast available

8:45 am – 9:00 am: Introduction and Welcome Remarks

• Marina Alexandrova, Associate Director, Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
• Ashley Moran, Co-Director, Center for Law and Democracy, and Research Scientist, Department of Government, The University of Texas at Austin

9:00 am – 10:00 am: Keynote Conversation 

• Michael Kimmage, Director, Kennan Institute
• Moderator: Alexandra Sukalo, Director, Clements-Strauss Intelligence Studies Project at The University of Texas at Austin

10:00 am – 10:10 am: Break

10:10 am – 11:00 am: Geopolitical Competition among Major Powers in Eurasia

• Chair: Sharyl Cross, Director of the Kozmetsky Center at St. Edward’s University, and Global Policy Scholar at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
• Craig Nation, Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow, U.S. Army War College, and Visiting Professor, Department of International Studies, Dickinson College
• Elizabeth Prodromou, Professor, International Studies Program, Boston College, and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center
• Michael Reynolds, Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
• Andrei Tsygankov, Professor, Department of International Relations, San Francisco State University

11:00 – 11:50 am: The Political Myth of Holy Rus’ in Russia and America

• Chair: Jason Roberts, Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies and Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
• Rebecca Echevarria, Masters Student in the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and the LBJ School of Public Policy, The University of Texas at Austin
• Eliza Fisher, Assistant Director, Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
• Domingos Tavares Campos, PhD Candidate, NOVA University of Lisbon School of Social Sciences and Humanities

11:50 am – 1:00 pm: Lunch

1:00 – 1:50 pm: Myths of Power and Identity During War

• Chair: Steven Seegel, Professor, Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
• Jonathan Brunstedt, Associate Professor, Department of History, Texas A&M University
• Nicholas Kupensky, Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, United States Air Force Academy 
• Anna Romandash, Visiting Fellow, Center for International Governance Innovation 
• Dmitry Shlapentokh, Associate Professor, Department of History, Indiana University South Bend

1:50 – 2:00 pm: Break

2:00 – 2:50 pm: From Myth to Reality in State Building

• Kiril Avramov, Assistant Professor, Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
• Alexey Golubev, Associate Professor, Department of History, Rice University
• Paul Kubicek, Professor, Department of Political Science, Oakland University
• Chechesh Kudachinova, Guest Researcher, Institute of East European Studies, Freie Universität

2:50 – 3:40 pm: Myths Advancing or Eroding Democratic Values

• Chair: Michael Mosser, Director, Center for European Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
• Natalia Cwicinskaja, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law and Administration, Adam Mickiewicz University
• Ia Eradze, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, and Visiting Fellow at Harvard University
• János Fazekas, Associate Professor, Department of Administrative Law, Eötvös Loránd University and Visiting Professor, School of Law, The University of Texas at Austin
• Byeibitgul Khaumyen, Independent Researcher

3:40 – 3:50 pm: Concluding Remarks