Orlov, Vladimir A.

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; member of its Executive Board; and Director of the Center’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Program.

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 Sr. Orlov as its Chief Editor.

In 1994 and later during 1999-2002, Dr. Orlov, while continuing his work in Moscow, was a Visiting Scholar and Senior Research Associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. In 2001-2002, the U.N. Secretary-General appointed Dr. Orlov as a U.N. 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).

Since 1995, Dr. Orlov took part in the work of all NPT Review Conferences, since 2010,  – as a member of the Russian delegation (most recently, in August 2022). 

Starting 2008, Dr. Orlov has been working on the concept of BRIC, later BRICS, and its development, particularly on its peace and security basket. He is a member of the Russian National Committee for BRICS Studies Research Council 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 116 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. 

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. His initiative culminated in establishment (in 2016) of the International Dual Degree MA Program in Nonproliferation and Global Security Studies – a joint project by the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs (MGIMO University), Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and PIR Center. Currently he serves as academic director of the program. Dr. Orlov is Professor at MGIMO University. He is executive editor and co-author of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Textbook in two volumes.

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 theWashington Quarterly. He runs a column at Kommersant, a leading Russian policy daily newspaper as well he regularly addresses Russian TV audience at the Great Game TV show of the Russian Channel 1. 

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 of which he is currently writing his new book.

Dr. Orlov is on Twitter (Orlov_pircenter) on professional matters (in English), and on Facebook (VladimirAOrloff). He runs his blog on PIR Center’s www.nonproliferation.world and on Telegram “Sobesednik-na-Piru”. His web site Orloff.world is a mix of his professional expertise and travel-related experiences. 

E7/SLE – 12/22