New York University’s Taub Center for Israel Studies will host “Israel and the Other Great Powers: Europe, Russia, and China,” on Tues., Dec. 4, 4-7 p.m., King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center (screening room), 53 Washington Square South (betw. Thompson and Sullivan Sts.). Subways: A, B, C, D, E, F, V (West 4th Street).
The symposium is free and open to the public. The public should RSVP to fas.taubcenter@nyu.edu or 212.992.9797
Reporters interested in attending the event should contact James Devitt, NYU’s Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu.
Israel’s close ties to the United States obscure the fact that Israel also has important relations with the other major powers of the 21st century: Europe, Russia, and China. Israel’s bilateral relations with each of them encompass significant political dialogue, large-scale trade and investments, and scientific cooperation. Specialists in the history and politics of each of the Great Powers will survey the past, present, and future of Israel’s relations with them.
Israel’s former Ambassador to France, Eli Barnavi, the Henri Glasberg Professor of European Early Modern History at Tel Aviv University (emeritus) and author of A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, will discuss the complex relationship between Israel and Europe since the 1980 Venice Declaration, assess the current state of affairs, and will provide a glance into the future.
Gabriel Gorodetsky, director of the Cummings Center for Russian Studies at Tel Aviv University, will examine whether Russia has any inherent interests in the Middle East or whether its genuine interests lie in the border lands—notably in the crescent running from the Black Sea littoral through the Caucasus and Iran to China. Research of the Russian archival sources by Gorodetsky, author of Grand Delusion: Stalin and the German Invasion of Russia, provides insight to this pattern, characterizing Israeli-Russian relations from their inception to the present day.
Aron Shai, the Shoul N. Eisenberg Professor East Asian Affairs at Tel-Aviv University and a Schusterman Visiting scholar at NYU, will describe the historical background of Sino-Israeli relations over the past 60 years, analyze the state of the current bilateral relations and offer insights on the China-US-Israel diplomatic triangle. Shai is the author of Britain and China, 1941-47: Imperial Momentum and other works.