Lukes in Globe Post on Russian Foreign Ministry Report
Igor Lukes, Professor of International Relations and History at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was recently interviewed for an article examining the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs End of the Year Report.
Lukes was quoted in a February 4, 2018 article in The Globe Post entitled “Experts Dispute Russian Foreign Ministry’s ‘Optimistic’ Report on Achievements.”
From the text of the article:
Mr. Lukes wrote that the Ministry “…is silent about Putin’s annexation of Crimea and advances the lie that the war in eastern Ukraine is allegedly an ‘intra-Ukrainian conflict.’ Really? Then what is the Russian Army doing there with troops and heave [sic] equipment?”
Mr. Lukes argued that the usage of the phrase “nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula” was “clearly incorrect.”
“First, the problem is the nuclear threat posed by North Korea, not its neighbor in the south. Second, North Koreas nukes are not a ‘problem OF the Korean Peninsula.’ They are a global problem,” he said.
Mr. Lukes said that the report presents Moscow as a power-broker in Syria and the Middle East.
“It’s true the Russians have upheld the present regime in Damascus, and prolonged the conflict, but I don’t see anyone paying much attention to Russia in the Middle East,” he said.
Igor Lukes writes primarily about Central Europe. His publications deal with the interwar period, the Cold War, and contemporary developments in East Central Europe and Russia. His work has won the support of various other institutions, including Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays, the Woodrow Wilson Center, IREX, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1997 Lukes won the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching at Boston University.