Please join us at the Wilson Center from 3:00-4:00 pm on Wednesday, January 29 for an event honoring U.S. Senator Ben Cardin who until a few weeks ago was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He was the author of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, and a longtime Commissioner and former Chairman of the Helsinki Commission. Senator Cardin will be honored with the George F. Kennan Leadership Award.

Russia’s unjust brutal invasion of Ukraine nears its third anniversary, yet Ukraine remains steadfast in its commitment to protect its sovereignty and borders while helping its own people to defend themselves against Putin’s aggression.  

With this in mind, the Wilson Center is honored to commemorate 50 years of the establishment of our Kennan Institute, named after George F. Kennan who was instrumental as the senior U.S. official in Moscow in 1946 in describing the Kremlin’s motivations and provided recommendations that became the foundation of America’s policies against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In addition to Kennan’s 50^th anniversary, we are also entering the 50^th anniversary of the Helsinki Act in 1975 that enshrined the post-WWII era.

The Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute and Global Europe Program invite you to attend a discussion on what lessons can we draw from these historic events, featuring one of our nation’s principal thinkers and foreign policy leaders on these topics.