PIR Center’s Founder Back As PIR Leader

MOSCOW, November 22, 2019. PIR PRESS. – “In the year of the PIR Center 25^th anniversary, we note that this is the most experienced Russian non-governmental expert organization in the field of international security that remains a unique and valuable tool of Russian public diplomacy. The acronym “PIR” is known all over the world and there is no need to explain what stands for it. The demand for its expert assessments, applied research and educational programs is beyond doubt. We fully support and endorse the actions of the Founder & Director of PIR Center Vladimir Orlov aimed at optimizing the organization’s structure and elaborating systemic steps to develop the PIR Center and the entire PIR Community”, – statement by the PIR Center’s Executive Board.

At its regular annual session, PIR Center’s Executive Board, a collective supreme body of this nonprofit institute, unanimously decided to appoint Founder of this organization Dr. Vladimir A. Orlov as its Director / CEO.

Members of the Executive Board made the following public statement: “In the year of the PIR Center 25^th anniversary, we note that this is the most experienced Russian non-governmental expert organization in the field of international security that remains a unique, valuable tool of Russian public diplomacy. The acronym “PIR” is known all over the world and there is no need to explain what stands for it. The demand for its expert assessments, applied research and educational programs is beyond doubt. We fully support and endorse the actions of the Founder & Director of PIR Center Dr. Vladimir A. Orlov aimed at optimizing the organization structure and elaborating systemic steps to develop the PIR Center and the entire PIR Community”. 

While accepting new responsibilities, Dr. Orlov will keep his positions as head of the Center for Global Trends and International Organizations at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy and as Professor at MGIMO University.   

The PIR Center founder thanked Albert Zulkharneev, who led the organization since 2014: “I would like to say a word of gratitude to my successor and, so it turns out, the predecessor – the former Director Albert Zulkharneev. For almost five years, he led our organization, and before that was its executive director. Albert went from being a PIR Center intern to its director. He is a distinguished PIR Center alumnus”. Albert Zulkharneev continues his collaboration with PIR Center as its consultant.

At the meeting of the Executive Board, Vladimir Orlov presented the organization’s development plan for 2020-2021: “We are going to activate, strengthen that area of research and practical work, through which the PIR Center is now known and respected worldwide: nuclear nonproliferation. This is particularly relevant in the context of the upcoming NPT Review Conference. We will keep the issues of Russian-American relations among the priorities; exactly in one year – in November 2020 – our collective monograph on this subject will be released. As you understand, the date was not chosen by chance. We will further develop educational projects – one of the most successful areas of our activity over the past decade. The International School on Global Security has become the “calling card” of the PIR Center, and its 20^thedition will take place in June 2020. In fact, we are talking about the synergy of research on nuclear nonproliferation and the development of education in this area, where PIR Center is the leader. To that end, we will establish a powerful virtual platform: Nonproliferation. Ru. I have appointed a new Director of the PIR Center Educational Program, Yulia Sych, who has demonstrated successful work in this area already.”.

“Our Center is a research boutique in the field of international security,” stated Vladimir Orlov. “There is an inevitable vulnerability in this “boutique” style, but there are also obvious advantages. Instead of crowded conferences, we will focus on less visible, but more efficient small-size Track 1.5 format. We will be reforming the Trialogue International Club so that there are fewer monologues and more dialogues, if not trialogues; the very name of the Club requires it. But “boutique” also means a special, immediately recognizable style. Our work should be first of all rich in content and relevant, but its formats can and should be stylish in PIR Center way”.

For all questions regarding the PIR Center activity, please contact Project Administrator Vlada Demina by e-mail demina@pircenter.org, tel. +7 (495) 940 09 83.