Dr. Robert Orttung is a Research Professor of International Affairs at GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs and Director of Research for Sustainable GW.

Orttung is the lead PI on a National Science Foundation grant focused on promoting urban sustainability in the Arctic.

He is the co-author (with Sufian Zhemukhov) of Putin’s Olympics: The Sochi Games and the Evolution of Twenty-First Century Russia (Routledge, 2017), editor of Sustaining Russia’s Arctic Cities: Resource Politics, Migration, and Climate Change (NY: Berghahn, 2016), and co-editor (with Henry Hale) of Beyond the Euromaidan: Comparative Perspectives on Advancing Reform in Ukraine (Stanford, 2016).

Among his previous publications are several books and articles examining the interconnection between energy and international relations, including serving as an editor with Andreas Wenger and Jeronim Perovic of Energy and the Transformation of International Relations: Toward a New Producer–Consumer Framework (Oxford University Press, 2009) and Russian Energy Power and Foreign Relations: Implications for conflict and cooperation, (Routledge, 2009).

Dr. Orttung received a B.A. in Russian Studies from Stanford University and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.