Lynch, Allen C. 1955-
Lynch, Allen C. 1955-
PERSONAL:
Born August 17, 1955, in New York, NY; son of Allen J. (a high school teacher) and Eileen P. (in sales) Lynch; married Tullia M. Maffei (a journalist), May 16, 1987; children: Thomas Gregory. Education: State University of New York at Stony Brook, B.A. (with high honors), 1977; Columbia University, M.I.A. and certificate in Russian, 1979, Ph.D., 1984. Politics: Independent. Religion: Roman Catholic.
ADDRESSES:
Home—Charlottesville, VA. Office—Department of Government and Foreign Affairs, 232 Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22901. E-mail—[email protected].
CAREER:
Writer, educator. Institute for East-West Security Studies, New York City, research associate and deputy director of studies, 1984-89; Columbia University, New York City, assistant director of W. Averill Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union, 1989-92; University of Virginia, Charlottesville, associate professor of government and foreign affairs, 1992—, Hugh S. and Winifred B. Cumming Memorial Professor of International Affairs, Director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies. RFE-RL Research Institute (Munich), visiting fellow, 1993-94; JFK Institute for North American Studies, Free University of Berlin, visiting professor, 200l; Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, visiting scholar, 2005. Feris Foundation of America, executive vice president, 1988-94.
AWARDS, HONORS:
Marshall D. Shulman Award, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 1987, for The Soviet Study of International Relations; Foreign Policy Association, honorary fellow; Kleinhans Award for Distinguished Service, 1997.
WRITINGS:
(Editor, with F. Stephen Larrabee and R.B. Byers) Confidence-building Measures and International Security, Institute for East-West Security Studies (New York, NY), 1986.
Political and Military Implications of the "Nuclear Winter" Theory, Institute for East-West Security Studies (New York, NY), 1987.
The Soviet Study of International Relations, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1987, revised edition, 1989.
Gorbachev's International Outlook: Intellectual Origins and Political Consequences, Institute for East-West Security Studies (New York, NY), 1989.
The Soviet Breakup and U.S. Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy Association (New York, NY), 1992.
The Cold War Is Over—Again, Westview (New York, NY), 1992.
(Editor, with Kenneth W. Thompson) Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia in a World of Change, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1994.
(With F. Stephen Larrabee) Russia, Ukraine, and European Security: Implications for Western Policy, Rand (Santa Monica, CA), 1994.
Does Russia Have a Democratic Future? Foreign Policy Association (New York, NY), 1997.
How Russia Is Not Ruled: Reflections on Russian Political Development, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2005.
Also author, with Renee Lukic, of Europe from the Balkans to the Urals: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia and the U.S.S.R. and International Politics. Member of editorial board, Nationalities Papers, 1992—. Contributor of articles to numerous scholarly journals, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and Journal of International Affairs.
SIDELIGHTS:
Allen C. Lynch is a professor of international affairs with particular interests in Soviet and Russian foreign affairs and politics. He is the author of numerous books on the subject, including the 2005 volume, How Russia Is Not Ruled: Reflections on Russian Political Development, a book that, according to Demokratizatsiya contributor James W. Warhola, "expresses little optimism for the prospect of a stabilizing and deepening liberal democracy in Russia." Here Lynch's main focus is "on the problematic character of the political economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union," Warhola further explained. Lynch looks at events since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1989 and devotes early chapters to a general survey of the country's history. He concludes that a strong central state government apparatus has always been vital to Russia's ability to control its far-flung territories. Lynch goes on to posit that such a centralized government will most likely be the case in the future, as well. Writing in the Political Science Quarterly, Andrew C. Kuchins observed: "Lynch provides one of the most thoughtful explanations for why Russia under President Vladimir Putin has moved away from the market democratic model to a hybrid that draws heavily on Russian political and cultural traditions." Further praise came from Warhola, who concluded: "Overall, the book is well-researched and well-documented, depicting as problematic Russia's ‘fragile accomplishments’ of economic growth and ‘democratic’ governmental consolidation since 1999."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Demokratizatsiya, summer, 2005, James W. Warhola, review of How Russia Is Not Ruled: Reflections on Russian Political Development.
Political Science Quarterly, summer, 2006, Andrew C. Kuchins, review of How Russia Is Not Ruled.
ONLINE
University of Virginia Web site,http://www.virginia.edu/ (March 15, 2008), "Allen C. Lynch."