PIR Center Founding Director Dr. Vladimir Orlov’s interview for MGIMO Journal (MJ)

MOSCOW. SEPTEMBER 13, 2022. PIR PRESS. “What we probably have in common is boutique likeness. MGIMO has always provided very limited and precise training. Likewise, PIR Center is an expert boutique: it does not seek to embrace all spectrum of international studies, it is not omnivorous. We are working in the direction in which we are the сream of the crop — applied studies of international security, as well as the junction of science and education in this area”, – PIR Center Founding Director, MGIMO University Professor Vladimir Orlov in an interview for MGIMO Journal.

In the new issue of MGIMO Journal (MJ), dedicated to the protagonists of the Priority 2030 Program, an interview with PIR Center Founding Director and MGIMO University Professor Dr. Vladimir Orlov was published. The Priority 2030 Strategic Academic Leadership Program is implemented by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation in order to build up universities that will become leaders in creating new scientific knowledge and technologies which would be applied to the Russian economy and social sphere. Earlier in 2022 PIR Center and MGIMO University signed an agreement to realize a joint educational project Global security, strategic stability and arms control within the Program. As Dr. Vladimir Orlov noted, joining the program will let PIR Center to become part of academic diplomacy and political science hub, to join the consortium that is being created within this program.

In an interview with MJ, the head of PIR Center also shared the organization’s plans within the Program, gave an expert comment on the risks of nuclear escalation, noted the special importance of close interaction between education and science, in which PIR Center plays a significant role, told about the goals and priorities of PIR Center in terms of digitalization. Dr. Vladimir Orlov also stressed that PIR Center does not come to MGIMO, but returns to its office: after all, in the 1990s MGIMO was one of the first PIR Center’s offices: “I remember how in the mid-90s we were working in MGIMO, it was cramped, but the connection between science and students was there, a student could always come to discuss something, look through scientific occasional papers. And now we are returning to MGIMO home walls, not for sitting idle…We are not a student department, but an expert institute, but we are very open for mighty students to brainstorm important issues together”.

It is worth noting that PIR Center and MGIMO have already been developing an important project – International Dual Degree M.A. Program Global Security, Nuclear Policy, and WMD Nonproliferation which continues to be implemented in cooperation with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), USA. The agreement on the launch of a joint master’s program was reached in 2015. At that time, three co-founders of the Program, MGIMO University, MIIS and PIR Center, signed the respective documents on its establishment. Later, in 2016, the first enrollment of students took place. Since 2016 more than 40 students from different parts of the world have become the Program’s students. In addition to Russian and American students, young people from Canada, China, France, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and the Republic of Korea have received education under the Program.

“It’s incredible, but everything remains just the same. While things around us are collapsing or become suspended, the agreement that we signed in 2014 in Montreux – also, by the way, a thorny place for Russia in terms of history – imagine, this agreement is still valid and yields results!”, – Dr. Vladimir Orlov comments the prospects of the Dual Degree M.A. Program in Nonproliferation Studies whose relevance is increasing day by day.

We invite you to read the full interview here.

PIR Center expresses its gratitude to the MGIMO Journal editorial board for the interview.