March 7, 2002

SMU TO PRESENT CONFERENCE ON RUSSIAN SECURITY

DALLAS (SMU) -- The Marian Tower International Conference at Southern Methodist University will present "Russia's Security Challenges in the 21st Century" from 9:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 6, in McCord Auditorium, third floor of Dallas Hall, 3225 University Blvd. The conference is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by SMU's John G. Tower Center for Political Studies in Dedman College, the conference is being organized as a series of presentations by Russian and American scholars on the issues that threaten Russian national security, both internally and externally.

James Millar, professor of economics and international affairs at George Washington University, will give the keynote address at 9:15 a.m. Recognized as one of the foremost authorities in the world on Russian affairs, Millar will present an overview of the security challenges facing Russia. Millar is the former editor of the journal, Problems of Post-Communism, and the former director of the Russian and East European Studies Department at George Washington University.

The following are the topics and speakers:

10 to 11:45 a.m.
International Security, moderated by James Hollifield, director of the Tower Center and SMU professor of political science.

• "Russian Threat Perceptions" presented by John Reppert, executive director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.
• "U.S.-Russian Relations" presented by Herbert Ellison, professor of history and international studies at University of Washington.
• "Russian-Asian Relations" presented by Dale Herspring, professor of political science at Kansas State University.
• "Russian Near Abroad Relations" presented by Mikhail A. Alexseev, assistant professor of political science at San Diego State University.

1:45 to 3 p.m.
Political Security, moderated by Daniel T. Orlovsky, SMU professor of history.

• "Crime and Corruption" presented by Louise I. Shelley, professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Society and director of the Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at American University.
• "National Policy" presented by Gregory Gleason, professor of political science at University of New Mexico.
• "Center-Periphery Relations" presented by Darrell Slider, professor of political science at University of South Florida.
• "State-Society Relations" presented by Christopher Marsh, associate professor of political science at Baylor University.

3:15 to 5 p.m.
Economic Security, moderated by Michael Luzstig, SMU associate professor of political science.

• "Labor Relations" presented by Debra Javeline, assistant professor of political science at Rice University.
• "Land Relations" presented by Vladimir Belen'kiy, professor and director at the Institute for Land Relations and Land Planning in Moscow.
• "Food Security and Economic Integration" presented by Valeri Patsiorkovski, professor and laboratory chief at the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies of the Population at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
• "The Demographic Problem" presented by Timothy Heleniak, adjunct professor at Georgetown University and research fellow at the Kennan Institute and Woodrow Wilson International Center.

The Tower Center was established in memory and honor of former U.S. Senator John Tower, who earned a master's degree in political science from SMU in 1953. He also taught in the Political Science Department after his retirement from the Senate. Senator Tower and one of his daughters, Marian Tower, died in a plane crash in Georgia on April 5, 1991.