Behind the Headlines: Russia, Venezuela, and Turkey

Behind the headlines, Russia, Venezuela, and Turkey reveal deeper stories about power, resilience, and political transformation. In Russia, the narrative extends beyond confrontation with the West to questions of national identity, demographic strain, economic adaptation under sanctions, and the centralization of authority under Vladimir Putin. Venezuela’s crisis is not only a tale of economic collapse and hyperinflation, but also of institutional erosion, mass migration, and, under the leadership of acting president Delcy Rodriguez, a country seeking survival through strategic alliances and selective economic reforms. Meanwhile, Turkey’s role has changed from a straightforward ally or adversary to an independent, complex regional actor. Under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the country experienced further authoritarianism,
democratic backsliding, and suppression of dissent. Looking behind the headlines, all three countries are widely regarded as significant geopolitical risks.

October 6: Russia: From Imperial Echoes to Modern Power Politics
Alexey Golubev is a scholar of Russian history with a focus on social and cultural history of the twentieth century and additional expertise in transnational history and digital history. He completed his PhD in history at the University of British Columbia in 2016 and spent a year as a Banting Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Toronto before joining the University of Houston’s history department in fall 2017. During the academic year 2020–21, he was the Joy Foundation Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

October 20: Venezuela: From Collapse to Contention
Francisco J. Monaldi is the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Latin American Energy Policy and director of the Latin America Energy Program at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He is a leading scholar on the politics and economics of energy and resource policy in Latin America. He also studies institutions and
resource wealth management in developing countries. Mr. Monaldi holds a PhD and an MA in political science from Stanford University, an MA in international and development economics from Yale University, and a BA in economics from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.

October 27: Turkey: From EU Aspirant to Independent Actor
Ali Yildirim is a postdoctoral fellow in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Houston. He earned his PhD in feminist studies from the University of Minnesota and earned his MA in cultural studies and a BA in television reporting and programming from Istanbul Bilgi University. Since his arrival in Houston in 2022, Mr. Yildirim has worked with students and faculty exploring the entangled politics of sectarianism and sexuality in Turkey, with a particular focus on the culturally and politically marginalized ethnoreligious Alevi community.