Please join us for a moderated conversation between author and retired Foreign Service Officer Louis Sell and Eric Green, Director of the Office of Russian Affairs and member of the editorial board of The Foreign Service Journal. Mr. Sell's recent book, From Washington to Moscow, focuses on U.S.-Soviet relations and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Please click here to RSVP.

Sell traces the history of U.S.–Soviet relations between 1972 and 1991 and explains why the Cold War came to an abrupt end. Drawing heavily on archival sources and memoirs—many in Russian—as well as his own experiences, Sell describes events from the perspectives of American and Soviet participants. He attributes the USSR's fall not to one specific cause but to a combination of the Soviet system's inherent weaknesses, mistakes by Mikhail Gorbachev, and challenges by Ronald Reagan and other U.S. leaders. He shows how the USSR's rapid and humiliating collapse and the inability of the West and Russia to find a way to cooperate respectfully and collegially helped set the foundation for Vladimir Putin’s rise.

This discussion is in conjunction with the December issue of The Foreign Service Journal, which will focus on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the USSR. Mr. Sell is among the many contributors to that issue, which also has articles by FSOs Raymond Smith, Michael Lally and Timothy Lawson, as well as William Gleason and Justin Lifflander. The issue will also include an interview with former Secretary of State George Shultz, conducted by Ambassador (ret.) James Goodby.

This discussion will take place at AFSA headquarters, 2101 E St NW, at 12:00 p.m. on December 2. This is a brown bag event; attendees are welcome to bring their lunch. Please click here to RSVP. As always, AFSA will record this event and make it available for online viewing.