Center for Citizen Initiatives

Bringing Russian and American citizens together in Peace since 1983.

Graham Allison’s Ted Talk

Dear Friends,

A brilliant 18 minute TED Talk, Is war between China and the US inevitable?, was presented just over a month ago, and it’s already had over 1.8 million hits.

The subject: whether the US will resort to war that will go global … as China becomes the world hegemon within the next few years.  Across the centuries, there have been 16 times when one nation rose and another fell from power; a massive war occurred in 12 of them, killing millions of ordinary citizens.

Graham Allison, eminent Professor of Political Science at John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and part of the “Establishment,” explains the phenomenal miracle occurring in China which at this moment, shortens the very notion of America’s No.1 place in the world. This YouTube SHOCKS the senses, both in how fast China is rising and how soon this change of power will take place.

Allison provides no magic bullets. He coolly presents the world’s history with such circumstances and then questions how a US-China war (that would be the last on planet earth) could be avoided … and whether we will be aware enough to search for ways to live constructively with this rapidly escalating situation?

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WAR with RUSSIA? Professor Stephen Cohen

Friends,

Professor Stephen F. Cohen, America’s rigorous and courageous historian on all things Soviet and Russian, speaks out in his latest book, War with Russia?, a book he never intended to write.

By bluff, accident or design, we may be headed toward a nuclear war in the near future. Everything we hold dear could be vaporized in an instant.  The rhetoric coming out of Washington and the Deep State must be changed or our future is predictable.

U.S. mainstream media and a predominance of our Congressional leaders mouth ill-put-together rumors regarding Russia, the only country on the planet that could obliterate us. They jump on scant unverified facts and reflexively blame Russia. How many times do they have to “cry wolf” for Americans to wake up?

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CCI Travelers Visit Asian/European Russia

Dear Friends,

You may be asking, “How does CCI find all of these Russian people to host Americans in cities and regions across Russia?” It’s very simple. Between 1988 and 2008, we brought more than 8,000 Russians to American cities. They came on various CCI trips: from simple citizen diplomacy to more sophisticated programs such as learning business and non-profit management. They still have a great fondness and gratitude to CCI for their exposure to the outside world and, in many cases, the life-changing business education they received in the U.S.  Many still keep in touch with us on occasion. The next paragraph is about one of these Russians whom we hadn’t heard from since 1989.

On June 12th of this year, I received a message from an unknown man in Kungur, a small town in the Perm Mountains region, where the East meets the West in Russia. The email said, “Dear friends, I am one of 400 lucky people who visited the USA in 1989 according to your program, Soviets Meet Middle America. This trip greatly changed my life and since that time I have become the leader of the region-wide Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages. One of our goals is to present the American way of life to Russian students. We would be grateful if we could have a link with a similar organization in the USA and organize an exchange program among our students. We do believe and hope that citizens’ diplomacy is still as workable nowadays as it was in 1989. Sincerely yours, Victor Alexeev, PhD.”

At that very time, I was getting in touch with various Russian cities inviting them to host our September 2018 delegation of American travelers so I answered this email immediately. Victor Alexeev was delighted to get a response and learn that he could host three first-time American travelers to Russia in his small town of Kungur. This town is near Perm, a large industrial city, which had also contacted us in 2017 to inquire if they could in some way participate in CCI’s activities. It was a delight to correspond with this former CCI program participant. Please meet Victor Alexeev!

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(Video) A Glimpse Inside Russian Orthodoxy Today

Dear CCI Friends,

If there is any month that seems appropriate to discuss ‘things of the spirit,’ it is December, since Christmas, Hanukkah and other spiritual traditions are clumped together in this month. I’d like to share with you my evolving thoughts on Russian Orthodoxy, in addition to a CCI YouTube below that we recently put together on this topic:  A Glimpse into Russian Orthodoxy.

An American Antiochian Orthodox father and his two teenage sons applied to go on our September trip to Russia. Among other reasons, they hoped to visit with an American Orthodox priest who moved his family to Russia to continue his life as a Russian Orthodox priest. Our videographer and I traveled on this leg of the journey with them to Rostov Veliky as you will see from the YouTube video. This opened up another porthole for me into the faith which Russians are gradually beginning to explore in varying degrees.

Numbers of Russians today have begun for the first time to identify with the long religious history of Orthodoxy. They find comfort in being part of these traditions whether they go to church regularly or not. Quite a few of them wear small crosses around their necks … more so than at any time since the 1917 Revolution when the church was forbidden, sanctuaries were used for storage dumps and many priests were killed.

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Re-addressing the Azov Debacle!

Dear CCI Readers,

Never have I had more supporters and detractors than with yesterday’s post regarding the Azov debacle!

Worse still, I quoted Patrick Buchanan (whose humorous pieces I usually enjoy) regarding the Azov waters being like a “Russian lake.” It sounded reasonable at a quick glance… but later, looking at a larger map of the area, I saw that Mariupol was on the shoreline!  Was Pat thinking the port was in Eastern Ukraine, therefore it is in Russian-dominated territory? In any case, Maritime Law would have still been the same.  By this time, my piece was out.  I acted thoughtlessly in an area where I have no expertise!  Has this ever happened to you?  Argggg!  I spent the day reading emails and responding to them. Finally I decided to write to the whole list.  I hope the following is understandable.

From a reader came this note that gave me (I think) the essence of the situation. He said: “Sharon, my initial reaction was, likewise, that it isn’t our business (to be policemen). However, Craig Murray, a former British diplomat who is usually very sympathetic to the Russian point of view, says that the Law of the Sea is involved and that in this instance Russia is acting incorrectly:”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/12/azov-again/
Murray reports (I have underlined below to accentuate the confusing rights and wrongs):

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