Jennifer Siegel, Money and Power: Financial Diplomacy and the Sinews of War and Peace

Arts and Humanities Inaugural Lecture
Wed, March 9, 2016
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Faculty Club Grand Lounge

Time: 5 p.m.
Event Host: Arts and Humanities
Short Description: This talk by Jennifer Siegel will examine the give and take between high finance, international politics and domestic pressures through the lens of the early 20th century Anglo-Russo-French financial relationship.


Jennifer Siegel
This talk by Jennifer Siegel will examine the give and take between high finance, international politics and domestic pressures through the lens of the early 20th century Anglo-Russo-French financial relationship. The story of British and French private and government loans to Russia in the late imperial period up to the Genoa Conference of 1922 is a classic tale of money and power in the modern era—an age of economic interconnectivity and great power interdependency. Imperial Russia was the foremost international debtor country in pre-World War I Europe. From the forging of the Franco-Russian alliance onwards, Russia’s needs were met, first and foremost, by Russia’s allies and diplomatic partners in the developing Triple Entente. In the case of Russia’s relationships with both France and Great Britain, an open pocketbook primed the pump, facilitating the good spirits that fostered agreement. And Russia’s continued access to those ready lenders ensured that the empire of the Tsars would not be tempted away from its alliance and entente partners. RSVP.

Reception will accompany each lecture. Free and open to the public.

List of 2015-2016 lectures.