Join the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute for a talk with Olena Lennon, Aram Hamparian and Ieva Zake on ethnic interest group influence on American foreign policy. The past 25 years have witnessed a growing scholarly interest in the role of ethnic interest groups, or diasporas, in the conceptualization of America’s foreign policy. In particular, the demise of the Soviet Union has created the need for a more systematized look at the effect of post-Soviet immigrant-ethnic communities on America’s posture toward post-communist states. Of particular interest is mobilization of ethnic diasporas in the U.S. during periods of active conflict within their respective countries of origin. In this panel, experts will compare and contrast the experiences of three “classical” post-Soviet interest groups – Armenia, Ukraine and the Baltics.

RSVP is requested and can be found at this link.

Speakers:

Olena Lennon, adjunct professor of political science and national security, University of New Haven

Aram Hamparian, executive director of Armenian National Committee of America, Washington DC office

Ieva Zake, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Millersville University