Dr. Orlov is an expert in international security and Russia’s foreign policy. His areas of research include major threats and challenges to international security, primarily nuclear nonproliferation.
In 1994, Dr. Orlov founded PIR Center, a private think tank dealing with international security and Russia’s foreign policy issues, now a leading Russian and international research and publishing nongovernmental organization in this area. Dr. Orlov is currently PIR Center’s Director and a member of its Executive Board.
In 1994, Dr. Orlov launched the first Russian journal on nonproliferation issues, Yaderny Kontrol (Nuclear Control). In 2007 the journal was developed into Security Index (Indeks Bezopasnosti), with both Russian and global (English-language) editions. Currently, Security Index continues as Occasional Paper Series, with Dr. Orlov as its Chief Editor. Since 2024, Dr. Orlov is also Editor-in-Chief of Security Index Yearbook (Global Edition)
In 2001-2002, the U.N. Secretary-General appointed Dr. Orlov as a UN consultant on disarmament and nonproliferation education. In 2004, Dr. Orlov became a professor at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), a position he kept until 2008, when he decided to concentrate on the development of Center russe d’études politiques in Geneva, an association which he led for twelve years (2006-2018).
Dr. Orlov participated in the work of NPT Review Conferences in 1995, 2000, 2010, 2015, and 2022, including as a counsellor to the Russian delegation.
Starting 2008, Dr. Orlov has been working on the concept of BRIC, later BRICS, and its development, particularly on its peace and security basket and participated in several BRICS Academic Forums.
Dr. Orlov is President of the Trialogue Club International, which he founded thirty years ago, in 1993. Dr. Orlov presided over 125 sessions of this prestigious Club which brings together diplomats, business community, and security experts.
Dr. Orlov participates in the activity of several international centers and groups in the sphere of international security. He is a member of the Russian Council of Foreign and Defense Policy; of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC); of the International Nuclear Energy Academy (INEA); and of the Washington Quarterly Editorial Board. Dr. Orlov served as a member of the Global Agenda Council on Nuclear Security at the World Economic Forum (2014-2016); and of the Advisory Board of the Government of the Russian Federation (2014-2019).
For four years (2015-2018) Dr. Orlov served at the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.
In 2018, Dr. Orlov was awarded a medal “For the contribution to the international cooperation” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. In 2025, on behalf of PIR Center he received a national award recognizing PIR Community as No.1 in the field of international relations and among top 25 communities in Russia.
Dr. Orlov is constantly engaged in teaching and educational activities, giving lectures and expert comments on Russian foreign policy and on nuclear nonproliferation within Russia and abroad. In 2024, he founded International Security MA Program at MGIMO (jointly with PIR Center) in Moscow, and is currently its Academic Director. Since 2017, Dr. Orlov is Professor at MGIMO University. He is executive editor and co-author of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Textbook in two volumes. In 2000, he founded International Summer School on Global Security in Zvenigorod; since then, he was academic director of 23 editions of the Zvenigorod School. There are more than 1,000 graduates from educational programs executed by Dr. Orlov residing in 62 countries.
Dr. Orlov is author of more than a dozen books and monographs and more than three hundred research papers, articles, and essays. His most recent books (co-edited and co-authored) include: “A New Nuclear Nine? Addressing Global Nuclear Nonproliferation Threats” (2022; in Russian) and “Russian-American Nuclear Nonproliferation Dialogue: Lessons Learned and Road Ahead” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022; in English). He publishes his views in Russian and foreign periodicals including International Affairs (Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn’), Russia in Global Affairs, Security Index, and the Washington Quarterly. He runs a column at Kommersant, a leading Russian policy daily newspaper as well he regularly addresses Russian TV audience.
Dr. Orlov speaks English and Spanish. His hobbies include Russian classical literature, theatre, hiking in the mountains, and bicycle touring in the tropics. He is a passionate world traveler. Together with his wife Tatyana, he crossed 16,000 km by car across Russia towards lake Baikal, around it, and back, also crossed the United States by car from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hiked in western Madagascar, explored eastern Bhutan, took a canoe trip into Venezuelan rainforest, reconstructed Count Alexander Suvorov’s 1799 Alpine Crossing of Switzerland, and made a round-the-world trip visiting over 30 remote islands and archipelagos.
Dr. Orlov runs his Telegram Channel “Sobesednik na Piru”. His web site Orloff.world is a mix of his professional expertise and travel-related experiences.
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