Yuri V. Urbanovich, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Emeritus of Interdisciplinary Studies

University of Virginia

Born in Tbilisi, the capital city of the Republic of Georgia, Yuri Urbanovich received an M.A. in International Relations (with a concentration in International Economic Relations) from Moscow State Institute of International Relations - MGIMO University* (1972) and a Ph.D. in International Relations (with the same concentration) from the Diplomatic Academy** of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1984). In the United States, he has attended and completed programs related to his specialization at both Harvard University (Cambridge, MA; June 1989) and The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH; Summer 1994).

From 1972 to 1975 Yuri Urbanovich worked at the regional office of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade in the Republic of Lithuania, and from 1976 to 1980 at the International Relations Division of the USSR Central Union of Consumers’ Cooperatives in Moscow.

After graduating from the Ph.D. program, Dr. Urbanovich was invited to teach at the Diplomatic Academy. His academic interests were focused on disarmament issues, theory and technique of international negotiation, and conflict resolution. From 1986 to 1987 he served as consultant to the Soviet Delegation at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament.

In 1990, Dr. Urbanovich participated as a negotiation trainer and consultant in the first joint Soviet-American workshop on diplomatic negotiations, The Atlantic to the Urals, a landmark collaboration initiated by the Harvard Negotiation Project and hosted by Columbia University’s Harriman Institute for Advanced Studies of the Soviet Union, as it was then called.

In 1992, Dr. Urbanovich was invited by the University of Virginia’s Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI) to participate in and coordinate a multi-year project in the newly independent Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. This project was aimed at promoting Russian-Baltic dialogues, defusing detrimental nationalistic tendencies, and enabling a “velvet divorce” from the former Soviet Union.

In 1993, at President Jimmy Carter’s invitation, Dr. Urbanovich participated in a working session on the Caucasus at the second Consultation of the International Negotiation Network at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1995, Dr. Urbanovich was invited by President Jimmy Carter to serve as a consultant of his representative on a trip to the Republic of Georgia for preliminary assessment of the relations between the opposing sides (Georgians and Abkhazians) after the brutal conflict of the early 1990s.

Until October 1999, Dr. Urbanovich was co-director of CSMHI’s conflict resolution program in the Republic of Georgia. In 1999-2000, he directed an interdisciplinary project entitled “Political Identity, National Interests, and Foreign Policy” at the University of Virginia which focused on controversial issues of contemporary international politics.

From 2000 to 2018, Dr. Urbanovich was Lecturer, General Faculty. In 2018, he was promoted to Associate Professor, General Faculty. Throughout this period, he has been associated with the Departments of Politics, Slavic Languages and Literatures, and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies). His courses and seminars

include: Nationalism in World Affairs; Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union; Post-Soviet Political Challenges: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict, Separatism and Irredentism; The Caucasus in World Affairs; Russian Politics; U.S.-Russian Relations; America Through Russian Eyes; Russia in World Affairs; Understanding Russia: Symbols, Myths and Archetypes of Identity; The Ukraine Crisis: East and West.

In addition, Dr. Urbanovich has also been invited by other institutions such as the FBI Academy and the National War College to conduct seminars and deliver lectures. Since 1993, he has been invited on a regular basis to give talks and participate in seminars at the Federal Executive Institute (Charlottesville, VA). In March 2014, he participated in American Forum – The Mind of Vladimir Putin. This event was organized by the Miller Center’s American Forum, the one-hour public-affairs television program taped before a live audience and broadcast on more than 90 PBS stations around the United States. In November 2017, Dr. Urbanovich took part in the symposium “U.S. Presidents Confront the Russians: A Century of Challenge, 1917-2017” sponsored by the Miller Center.

Dr. Urbanovich is the author of numerous publications on the problems of disarmament, international negotiations, national negotiating styles, nationalism and ethnic conflict, societies in transition, politics in Russia and the post-Soviet region, U.S. – Russian relations. Most recent: https://news.virginia.edu/content/expert-kursk-could-become-bargaining-chip-ukrainian-war

Dr. Urbanovich retired in May 2021 and the Board of Visitors conferred emeritus status upon him – Associate Professor Emeritus of Interdisciplinary Studies. He continues to teach his courses on a part-time basis and participate in academic projects where his expertise has been in demand. Since March 2022, he has participated in a rolling blog and weekly Zoom meetings on Russia's invasion of Ukraine created by the Miller Center.

________________________________________________

*MGIMO University is Russia's most prestigious educational institution for those with international interests. It was dubbed the “Harvard of Russia" by Henry Kissinger because it educates so many of Russia's political, economic, and intellectual elite. MGIMO is the only university in the world listed in the Guinness Book of Records – it is named the only educational establishment teaching 53 foreign languages full-time. In 2016, MGIMO University was ranked 12th in the list of the world’s leading university affiliated think tanks.

** The Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs the oldest institution of its sort in the world. It has established itself as a unique multidisciplinary academic and research institution known world-wide.