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• Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2019 (Revised January 2020)

  Russia: A Drama In Three Acts

  Rawi Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella, Galit Goldstein and Sogomon Tarontsi

  The collapse of central authority in the Soviet Union in 1991 ushered in a period of revolutionary transformations for the states that emerged in its wake. The leaders of Russia, the USSR's successor, struggled to reestablish central authority while also seeking to avoid further disintegration, establish a democratic polity, and institute a market economy across the next several years. Russia would navigate further economic crisis and a swiftly evolving geopolitical order as it returned to the world stage. The case examines the different governance approaches adopted by Presidents Boris Yeltsin, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, and concludes with a discussion of Russia’s strategic challenges and opportunities in 2020. The case focuses on problems of state authority; fiscal capacity; institutionalization of political parties; relations between the federal center and provincial governments; relations between the state and big business; economic policy; international relations; and models of economic development.

  Keywords: Business ＆ government relations; developing countries; government policy; policy change; Policy Making; Economic Systems; Economics; Globalization; Emerging Markets; Privatization; Non-Renewable Energy; Governance; Global Strategy; Corporate Governance; Policy; Business History; Lawfulness; Problems and Challenges; Business and Government Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Change Management; Russia; Moscow;

  Citation:

  Abdelal, Rawi, Rafael Di Tella, Galit Goldstein, and Sogomon Tarontsi. "Russia: A Drama In Three Acts." Harvard Business School Case 720-020, November 2019. (Revised January 2020.)  View Details

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• Article | Notes de l'Ifri | January 23, 2020

  Sanctions and the End of Trans-Atlanticism: Iran, Russia, and the Unintended Division of the West

  Rawi Abdelal and Aurélie Bros

  Sanctions have become the dominant tool of statecraft in the United States and other Western states, especially the European Union, since the end of the Cold War. But the systematic use of this instrument may produce unintended and somewhat paradoxical geopolitical consequences. The sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation in the field of energy are particularly illustrative of this phenomenon.
  Firstly, Iran and Russia demonstrated their resilience and a real ability to adapt, thus transforming the perspective to European companies. One of Tehran's responses to sanctions was to establish the so-called "resistance economy" in order to make Iran resistant to all kinds of economic shocks and reduce the reliance on a single commodity. For its part, Russia has adapted and offered new perspective to European and Asian businesses by creating a precedent with the case of Total. Some European companies are not ready to operate according to these rules—at least in the gas sector, as oil is too risky relative to U.S. policy and law.
  Secondly, differences in the approach of the United States and Europe over the type and intensity of economic statecraft against both Iran and Russia have increasingly undermined trans-Atlanticism. The so-called secondary sanctions imposed on both Iran and Russia have become the primary vehicle for signaling and even implementing a decoupling of U.S. and European political objectives. On the one hand, the costs of complying with U.S. secondary sanctions is perceived as too high for European companies. On the other, Europeans are not ready to bear the consequences of internal U.S. divisions.
  All of this might even have reinvigorated the European project, by triggering a debate on the need for European countries to protect their economic sovereignty. The European Green Deal might become the emerging unifying theme that might relaunch the European project and make Europe a fully-fledged geopolitical actor.

  Keywords: geopolitics; economic sanctions; International Relations; United States; Russia; Iran; Europe;

  Citation:

  Abdelal, Rawi, and Aurélie Bros. "Sanctions and the End of Trans-Atlanticism: Iran, Russia, and the Unintended Division of the West." Notes de l'Ifri (January 23, 2020).  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2019 (Revised August 2019)

  CareerWise Colorado

  Rawi Abdelal, Joseph B. Fuller and Matthew Preble

  CareerWise Colorado (CWC) is an organization that equips high school students with the skills to build successful careers through apprenticeships. Founded in 2016, the young organization has attracted interest from different groups and civic leaders from across the U.S., some of whom want to replicate CWC’s model and others who want CWC to bring and then operate its program in their localities.
  
  Noel Ginsburg, CWC’s founder and CEO, and Ashley Carter, COO, now have to decide how, when, and where to grow CWC. They both believe in CWC’s apprenticeship model’s widespread applicability, but so far it is still a relatively small—with just over 200 active apprentices spread across two cohorts, all of whom live in Colorado—and unproven entity. As of late 2018, no apprentices had yet completed the three-year program. They did not want to scale the program too soon, but Ginsburg and Carter also did not want to miss out on the attractive opportunities being presented to them. How should they scale this organization?

  Keywords: apprenticeship; nonprofit; not for profit; labor markets; skills; Nonprofit Organizations; Education; Competency and Skills; Personal Development and Career; Growth and Development Strategy;

  Citation:

  Abdelal, Rawi, Joseph B. Fuller, and Matthew Preble. "CareerWise Colorado." Harvard Business School Case 319-001, March 2019. (Revised August 2019.)  View Details

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