About the Event

Fiona Hill is a leading expert on Russia and Vladimir Putin. She served as an intelligence analyst for former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and as Deputy Assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council under former President Trump.

Now a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, Hill has recently served as one of the foremost voices analyzing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in the media. This year alone, she has appeared on 60 Minutes, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and in numerous articles for news outlets like Politico. Due to her background in Russian history and time spent living in Russia in the late 1980’s, Hill’s analysis of the current conflict includes cultural and historical context that helps to explain why Putin is so deeply invested in controlling Ukraine.

On December 15, join us for a livestream featuring Fiona Hill, in conversation with Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall Board Member Robert Abernethy. Their intimate discussion will cover her career, her thoughts on the ongoing war, and how the U.S. should move forward in their dealings with Russia and Ukraine.

Register

Please visit the Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall website here to register.

Meet the Speaker

Fiona Hill

Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Institution

Fiona Hill is a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. She recently served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at The National Intelligence Council. She is author of “There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century” and co-author of “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015).

Prior to joining Brookings, Hill was director of strategic planning at The Eurasia Foundation in Washington, D.C. From 1991 to 1999, she held a number of positions directing technical assistance and research projects at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, including associate director of the Strengthening Democratic Institutions Project, director of the Project on Ethnic Conflict in the Former Soviet Union, and coordinator of the Trilateral Study on Japanese-Russian-U.S. Relations.

Hill has researched and published extensively on issues related to Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, regional conflicts, energy, and strategic issues. Her book with Brookings Senior Fellow Clifford Gaddy, “The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold,” was published by Brookings Institution Press in December 2003, and her monograph, “Energy Empire: Oil, Gas and Russia’s Revival,” was published by the London Foreign Policy Centre in 2004. The first edition of “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin” was published by Brookings Institution Press in December 2013, also with Clifford Gaddy.

Hill holds a master’s in Soviet studies and a doctorate in history from Harvard University where she was a Frank Knox Fellow. She also holds a master’s in Russian and modern history from St. Andrews University in Scotland, and has pursued studies at Moscow’s Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages. Hill is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Meet the Moderator

Robert Abernethy

Founder and President, Tech Center

Robert J. Abernethy is Chairman of American Standard Development Company. He received a BA from Johns Hopkins University, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, certificates in Real Estate and Construction from UCLA and was formerly the Controller of the Technology Division of Hughes Aircraft Company. He is on the boards of Johns Hopkins, Brookings and New America. He serves as a Vice Chairman of The Atlantic Council and of The Los Angeles Music Center.