Notre Dame International Security Center

An Interview with Associate Professor Karrie J. Koesel by Andrew DelVecchio Summary: In this episode of Students Talk Security, Professor Karrie Koesel discusses the role that Russian domestic politics play in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Professor Koesel uses her experience with contemporary Russian politics to explain how President Putin is constrained and catalyzed by popular opinion and NATO's best avenue for de-escalating the conflict. Biography: Karrie J. Koesel is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame where she specializes in the study of contemporary Chinese and Russian politics, authoritarianism, and the politics of religion. She is the author of Religion & Authoritarianism: Cooperation, Conflict and the Consequences (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and co-editor of Citizens and the State in Authoritarian Regimes (Oxford University Press, 2020). Her research has been featured in World Politics, Perspectives on Politics, The China Quarterly, Post-Soviet