The Sakharov Program on Human Rights & the Cold War Studies Project
at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University,
Department of Physics, Harvard University, and The Andrei Sakharov Foundation
present an international conference

40 Years after Andrei Sakharov’s Reflections on Progress,
Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom

Russia Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Friday, October 24 - Saturday, October 25, 2008

Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989)

Andrei Sakharov always called for constructive dialogue, cooperation, and convergence between Russia and the West. Despite the recent conflicts in Russia-West relations, the factors promoting better relations outweigh the negatives. Russia is a source for oil, minerals, timber and commodities needed by the West and developing nations. Russia needs the West as a customer and as a source of technology and consumer goods. Putin and Medvedev both speak of Russia as a European country, and Russia is a member of the Council of Europe, OSCE, the G8, and other multilateral and bilateral institutions.

The Conference’s six panels will discuss reactions to the Sakharov essays Reflections on Progress, Intellectual Freedom, and Peaceful Coexistence (1968), The Inevitability of Perestroika (1988), and the continued relevance of his humanist vision; it will also address the nuclear issues he was concerned with, and improving relations between Russia and the West.

Made possible by the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, this conference is a step to encourage and initiate constructive dialogue when the administrations of both countries are in the process of change.

Program

(Last updated August 1, 2008)

Friday, October 24, 2008

9:00 - 10:30 am -- Panel 1:  Andrei Sakharov’s 1968 essay Reflections on Progress, Intellectual Freedom, and Peaceful Coexistence:  Reactions and Consequences

11:00 am - 12:30 pm -- Panel 2:  Andrei Sakharov’s 1988 essay The Inevitability of Perestroika: The End of the Soviet Union and the Rise of Russia

2:00 - 3:30 pm --  Panel 3:  Sakharov the Physicist

3:45 - 5:00 pm --  Screening of Documentary on Andrei Sakharov, followed by Q&A session

5:00 - 5:30 pm --  Reception at American Academy of Arts and Sciences

5:30 - 7:00 pm --  Panel 4: Andrei  Sakharov: The  Nuclear Legacy

Saturday, October 25, 2008

9:30 - 11:00 am --  Panel 5:  Russia Today and Tomorrow

11:30 am - 1:00 pm  --  Panel 6:  Russia and the West: Improving Relations

2:30 - 4:30 pm --  Round Table: Sakharov’s Legacy Today

4:00 pm --  Closing Remarks

Keynote speaker

Elena Bonner, widow of Andrei Sakharov, Chair, The Andrei Sakharov Foundation
 

Confirmed Panelists and Speakers

Sir Rodric Braithwaite, Chair, International Advisory Council, Moscow School of Political Studies

Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor and Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom, Kennedy School, Harvard University

Timothy Colton, Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies; Director, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University

Bruno Coppi, Professor of Physics, Physics of High Energy Plasma project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Loren Graham, Professor of the History of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Emeritus)

Marshall Goldman, Kathryn Wasserman Davis Professor of Russian Economics (Emeritus), Wellesley College; Senior Scholar, Davis Center, Harvard University

David Holloway, Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, Stanford University

Andrei Illarionov, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute

František Janouch, Professor of Nuclear Physics, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm;  Chair, Charter 77 Foundation

Mark Kramer, Director, Cold War Studies Project, Harvard University

Pavel Litvinov, human rights activist, physics and mathematics teacher (Emeritus),
Hackley School, Tarrytown, NY

Jack Matlock, Davis Professor in the Practice of International Diplomacy, Columbia University

William Miller, Senior Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Yuri F. Orlov, Senior Scientist, Laboratory for Elementary-Particle Physics, Cornell University

Pavel Podvig, Research Associate, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University

Peter Reddaway, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs (Emeritus), George Washington University

Rainier Weiss, Professor of Physics (Emeritus), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Richard Wilson, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics (Emeritus), Harvard University

Tatiana Yankelevich, Sakharov Program on Human Rights, Davis Center, Harvard University

Directions to the Academy

Registration required   Registration form

For adminstrative details please contact  Charlene Newell

Lodging:  Booking details provided upon registration

Further Information please contact  Tatiana Yankelevich 

 
Suggested Reading by Andrei Sakharov:

Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom

Nobel_Lecture

The Danger of Thermonuclear War

Nuclear Energy and Freedom of the West

The Inevitability of Perestroika

Sakharov Works in Russian