The Camden Conference and Portland Public Library will host Professor Laura A. Henry on Thursday, January 12 at 6:30pm. This event is presented on Zoom and is open to all. Please register HERE.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has led to on-going hardship, displacement, and suffering for many Ukrainians. At the same time, the effects of the war have rippled beyond the region of the former Soviet Union. The war has disrupted environmental cooperation, transformed global energy markets, and added uncertainty in international efforts to address climate change. Will Russia’s war accelerate international efforts to decarbonize economies and facilitate a green transition? Or will the war undermine these energy and climate goals? As the most directly affected, are Europeans positioned to cope with the loss of Russian oil and gas? What are the areas of fragility and adaptation in this “turbulent” period in international politics? In this talk, Professor Henry considers the direct and indirect environmental costs of the war.

Laura A. Henry is a Professor in the Department of Government and Legal Studies and is currently the chair of the Russian Department at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Her research investigates Russia’s post-Soviet transformation with a particular focus civil society, citizen activism, and environmental politics as well as international politics of the environment, climate, and the Arctic. Henry is the co-author (with Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom) of Bringing Global Governance Home: NGO Mediation in BRICS States (Oxford University Press, 2021) and the author of Red to Green: Environmental Activism in Post-Soviet Russia (Cornell University Press, 2010). She is also the co-editor of Russian Civil Society: A Critical Assessment (M.E. Sharpe, 2006). Her work has appeared in Environmental Politics, Global Environmental Politics, Post-Soviet Affairs, Europe-Asia Studies among other journals. She has been a Watson Foundation fellow and a Fulbright Scholar.