The Camden Conference and Portland Public Library present Laura Henry on February 8 at 7:00pm on Zoom.

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Which factors shape the European Union’s relationship with Russia today? In a talk that examines the evolution of EU-Russia relations from the Cold War to the present, Dr. Henry focuses on key tensions that shape the two regional powers’ interactions and asks whether the EU has the ability to influence Russia – and vice versa. Themes of the talk include elections as moments of heightened tension (disinformation campaigns and the fate of opposition figures like Aleksei Navalny), the role of energy in politics (Europe’s reliance on Russian natural gas and debates around Nordstream pipelines), and the environment (how EU climate policy might affect Russia in the future).

Laura A. Henry is a Professor in the Department of Government and Legal Studies at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.  Her research investigates Russia’s post-Soviet transformation, focusing on state society relations, environmental politics, and the interaction of transnational and local actors. Henry’s current book project (Bringing Global Governance Home) compares how NGOs from the BRICS countries use global agreements on climate change, HIV/AIDS, and deforestation to leverage policy change at home. Henry is the author of Red to Green: Environmental Activism in Post-Soviet Russia (Cornell University Press, 2010) and 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, and Europe-Asia Studies, among other journals. She has been a Watson Foundation fellow and a Fulbright Scholar.  Her research has received support from the National Security Education Program, the Social Science Research Council, and the International Research and Exchange Board.