Panel talk: Technology, culture and strategy in Russian military command and control

More about the panelists

Michael Kofman is a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on the Russian military and Eurasian security issues. Prior to joining Carnegie in 2023, he served as Director of the Russia Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analyses, where he conducted research on the capabilities, strategy, and military thought of the Russian Armed Forces. Widely recognized as one of the leading authorities on the Russian military, and the Russo-Ukrainian War, Kofman has led foundational work in the field, and is routinely cited in major publications. He also regularly advises senior government and military officials.

Katarzyna Zysk is a professor of international relations and contemporary history at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS). At the IFS, she served as deputy director (2017-21), head of the Centre for Security (2019-21), and was director of research (2017–19). Katarzyna was a visiting scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University and a visiting research fellow at the Changing Character of War Centre at the University of Oxford (2016–17). She is a member of the Hoover Institution's Arctic Security Initiative and was a research fellow at the Center for Naval Warfare Studies/Strategic Research Department at the US Naval War College. Her research focuses on security, defense and strategic studies, in particular Russia's military strategy, warfare, the Russian Navy, nuclear strategy, defense innovation and breakthrough technologies, maritime security and geopolitics in the Arctic.

Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky is a full professor at the School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy and the Head of the BA Honors Track in Strategic Studies, at the Reichman University, Israel. He has previously been affiliated with Harvard and Columbia, the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies, and with the Center for Eastern European Studies at the University of Zurich. He has published on military innovations, strategic culture, nuclear strategy, and U.S., Russian and Israeli national security. His books include: Operation Kavkaz: the Soviet Intervention and the Israeli Intelligence Failure in the War of Attrition (Maarachot, 2006) and The Culture of Military Innovation (Stanford UP, 2010). His book Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy: Religion, Politics and Strategy (Stanford UP, 2019) won the 2020 ISA best book award in the category of religion and International Relations. His latest book is The Russian Way of Deterrence: Strategic Culture, Coercion and War (Stanford UP, 2023). His forthcoming book The New Commissars (Cambridge UP) explores militarization of politics and politization of military in Russia.

Oscar Jonsson researcher at Swedish Defence University, where he studies Russian military and non-military warfare, the character of modern warfare, emerging technologies and the Russian military system. He has previously been a Director of the Center for the Governance of Change at IE University and the Stockholm Free World Furm. Morevoer, he has worked as a subject-matter expert at the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters, and taught diplomats at the Foreign Service Institute at the U.S.

Michael Rouland is the senior strategic advisor for the Russia Strategic Initiative, U.S. European Command and an adjunct professor for the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He previously served as senior historian for the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2018-2020) and senior historian and special advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Army (2014-2018). He participated in multiple service-wide and multinational working groups related to operations in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He led courses in Russian, Central Asian, and Eurasian history at Miami University and Stanford University.