Oral history interview with Timothy M. Frye, 2017

Biographical Note

Timothy Frye received a B.A. in Russian language and literature from Middlebury College in 1986, an M.I.A. from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 1992, and a PhD from Columbia in 1997. He is the author of several books, and has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. He also serves as Director of the Center for the Study of Institutions and Development at State Research University-Higher Economics School, Moscow

Scope and Contents

In the first session, Timothy Frye describes his experiences as an exchange student in Moscow in the 1980s, including being in the country during the ascension of Mikhael Gorbachev to the leadership of the USSR and the Chernobyl disaster. He relates his experiences in academia, including his time as a graduate student at the Harriman Institute. He discusses his interactions with Institute faculty including Jack Snyder and John Hazard. He also describes the process of completing his dissertation. He raises some structural critiques of Harriman but speaks positively of the Institute's current trend towards interdisciplinarity. In the second session, Frye discusses policymaking, how relations between academia and policymakers have changed over the course of his career, and his own experiences with policy influence through PONARS. The conversation moves to the current state of US-Russia relations, Frye's research on property rights in Russia, and his efforts with a Duma-funded academic center in Russia. Frye discusses the current state and leadership of the Harriman Institute, the Institute's activities with regards to human rights, and the future of Russian studies

Subjects

• Clark, Mary Marshall, interviewer.
• College teachers--Interviews.
• Frye, Timothy,--Interviews.
• Harriman Institute.
• Human rights--Study and teaching.
• Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Russia (Federation)--Relations--United States.
• Russia (Federation)--Study and teaching.
• Soviet Union--Study and teaching.
• United States--Relations--Russia (Federation)

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2017