Russia-China Military and Security Cooperation Workshop

Moderator: Mathieu Boulègue

Research Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Programme

Chatham House

Before joining Chatham House, Mathieu was a partner at the risk management and strategic research consultancy AESMA, where he worked as director of Eurasian affairs.

In his research, Mathieu focuses particularly on Eurasian security and defence issues as well as on Russia’s domestic and foreign policy.  Having trained as a policy and security analyst in the field of post-Soviet affairs, Mathieu regularly publishes articles and papers on Eurasian security & foreign policy questions.  He is also a frequent invited speaker at conferences and events around the world.

He graduated from Sciences Po Toulouse in France and King’s College London (M.A. International Conflict Studies).

Panelist: Bobo Lo

Independent international relations analyst, Associate Research Fellow, Russia/NIS Centre, IFRI, Non-Resident Fellow, the Lowry Institute and Senior Fellow, the Center for European Policy Analysis.

Bobo Lo is an independent international relations analyst. He is also an Associate Research Fellow with the Russia/NIS Center at IFRI, a Non-Resident Fellow with the Lowy Institute, Sydney, Australia, and a Senior Fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington. Previously, he was Head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, and Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy in Moscow.

Dr Lo’s most recent single-author book, A Wary Embrace: What the China-Russia Relationship Means for the World, was published by Penguin Random House Australia in 2017. Among his other major books are Russia and the New World Disorder (Brookings and Chatham House, 2015); Axis of Convenience: Moscow, Beijing and the New Geopolitics (Brookings and Chatham House, 2008); Vladimir Putin and the Evolution of Russian Foreign Policy (Blackwell and Chatham House, 2003); and Russian Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era: Reality, Illusion and Mythmaking (Palgrave, 2002).

Recent shorter writings include: ‘The Sino-Russian partnership and global order’, China International Strategy Review, December 2020; ‘Global order in the shadow of the coronavirus: China, Russia and the West’, Lowy Institute Analysis, July 2020; ‘The return: Russia and the security landscape of Northeast Asia’, Russie.NEI.Reports, IFRI, March 2020; ‘Once more with feeling: Russia and the Asia-Pacific’, Lowy Analysis, August 2019; ‘Greater Eurasia: the Emperor’s new clothes or an idea whose time has come?’, Russie.NEI.Reports, July 2019; ‘The five secrets to the Russian president’s success’, Australian Financial Review, 6 February 2019; and ‘Going legit? The foreign policy of Vladimir Putin’, Lowy Analysis, September 2018.

Panelist: Dmitry Gorenburg

Senior Research Scientist for Strategy, Policy, Plans, and Programs

Center for Naval Analysis

Dr. Dmitry Gorenburg is Senior Research Scientist in the Strategy, Policy, Plans, and Programs division of CNA, where he has worked since 2000. Dr. Gorenburg is also an associate at the Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and previously served as Executive Director of the American Association of the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS). His research interests include security issues in the former Soviet Union, Russian military reform, Russian foreign policy, and ethnic politics and identity. He has over a decade of experience analyzing the Russian military and Russian security interests, acquired through extensive field work in Russia and throughout the former Soviet region. Dr. Gorenburg has recently completed a series of reports on Russia’s maritime interests and naval capabilities and is currently working on Russian strategic and operational decision-making. He has previously conducted studies on regional security in the Arctic, Baltic, Black Sea, and Caspian regions.

In addition to his work at CNA, Dr. Gorenburg has published a book, Minority Ethnic Mobilization in the Russian Federation (Cambridge University Press, 2003), and numerous articles on security and ethnic identity in prominent academic and policy journals, including World Politics, Post-Soviet Affairs, and Current History. He currently serves as editor of Problems of Post-Communism and was also the editor of Russian Politics and Law from 2009 to 2016. He blogs about the Russian military at Russian Military Reform (http://russiamil.wordpress.com). He completed a Ph.D. in political science at Harvard University and has served as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He has native fluency in Russian.

Panelist: Mathieu Duchâtel

Director of the Asia Programme, Institut Montaigne

Dr. Mathieu Duchâtel has joined Institut Montaigne as Director of the Asia Program in January 2019. He works on China’s foreign and security policy and Northeast Asian affairs, with a focus on maritime affairs, Europe-China relations, the Korean peninsula and Taiwan and cross-strait relations.

Before joining Institut Montaigne he was Senior Policy Fellow and Deputy Director of the Asia and China Programme at the European Council of Foreign Relations (2015-2018), Senior Researcher and the Representative in Beijing of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (2011-2015), Research Fellow with Asia Centre in Paris (2007-2011) and Associate Researcher based in Taipei with Asia Centre (2004-2007).

He holds a Ph.D in political science from the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po, Paris). He has spent a total of nine years in Shanghai (Fudan University), Taipei (National Chengchi University) and Beijing and has been visiting scholar at the School of International Studies of Peking University in 2011/2012 and the Japan Institute of International Affairs in 2015. His latest co-authored book, China’s Strong Arm, Protecting Citizens and Assets Abroad was published in the Adelphi collection by IISS and Routledge in 2015.

Panelist: Erin Sindle

Research Analyst, the Institute for Defense Analyses

Erin Sindle is a Research Analyst at the Institute for Defense Analyses, where her work focuses on Russian foreign policy and military strategy. Prior to this, she served as a writer and editor at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at National Defense University, where her work focused on U.S. national security policy and strategy, Russian military strategy and doctrine, and joint warfighting. She has also served as a researcher and writer for IHS

Jane’s, analyzing the armed forces, orders of battle, and defense industries of individual countries, focusing primarily on Western Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, and for the London-based publishing house Visiongain, where she authored and co-authored reports on unmanned capabilities and network-based operations. Her additional professional roles include serving as an intelligence analyst, with a focus on North Africa and the Middle East, and as a journalist for the Military Times newspapers. She has nearly a decade of overseas experience working in support of NATO, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense, and speaks German, French, and Russian. She holds a Master’s degree in War Studies from King’s College London.

Panelist: Elizabeth Buchanan

Lecturer of Strategic Studies, Deakin University/Australian War College

Non-Resident Fellow, Modern War Institute, West Point Military Academy

Dr Elizabeth Buchanan is an Australian polar geopolitics expert. Her research interests include Arctic and Antarctic geopolitics, energy security, Russian grand strategy, and strategic studies. Dr Buchanan is Lecturer of Strategic Studies with Deakin University for the Defence and Strategic Studies Course (DSSC) at the Australian War College – Australian Defence’s O6/O7 training course. Elizabeth is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point Military Academy. In this role she contributes to the U.S-Australian military dialogue focusing on polar geopolitics. She is the inaugural Co-Director of the Modern War Institute’s Polar Security Research Initiative - Project 6633.

Dr. Buchanan holds a Ph.D. in Russian Arctic strategy from the Australian National University. Elizabeth was the Visiting Maritime Fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome focusing on Arctic geopolitics. Dr Buchanan is a Freelance contributor for Janes on polar security affairs.  She has published widely on polar geopolitics most recently with the NATO Defence College, International Affairs, The National Interest, War on the Rocks, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The Australian, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and the Lowy Institute.

Dr Buchanan has been a Visiting Scholar with The Brookings Institution and has work experience in the global oil sector. She is an Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) Early Career Research Awardee and in 2019 Dr Buchanan was listed as a ‘Young Woman to Watch in International Affairs’. In 2019, Dr Buchanan was called upon to moderate the only public engagement with NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, during an official visit to Australia. Dr Buchanan has two forthcoming books: Russian Energy Strategy in Asia (ANU Press) and Russian Arctic Strategy under Putin (The Brookings Institution Press).

Dr Buchanan is leading a research grant with the Australian Army Research Centre on Hybrid Warfare. She is part of the Arctic Hybrid Threats research group at European Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE, Finland). Recently, Elizabeth was awarded an EU Parliament Commission grant to explore EU strategy in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.