Hundreds of civilians have been murdered in the past month across Russia by Islamist terrorists, who have effectively hijacked Chechnya’s struggle for independence and transformed it into a nihilistic, endless jihad. In the aftermath of the downing of two civilian airliners and the massacre of schoolchildren in Beslan, President Vladimir Putin has announced a radical overhaul of Russia’s political system that would end the popular election of governors and independent lawmakers--a move, critics contend, that has less to do with counterterrorism than consolidating the Kremlin’s power and stifling democracy.

What measures should the Kremlin take to stabilize Chechnya, strengthen its counterterrorism policies, and reform its overall security strategy for the North Caucasus? What can the United States and Europe do to help combat Islamic fundamentalism in Russia, and how does Russia’s struggle intersect with the global, U.S.-led war on terror? What will be the impact of Putin’s proposals on participatory politics and civil society in Russia?

These and other questions will be the subject of an AEI luncheon discussion on Tuesday, September 21. Scheduled speakers will include Leon Aron, director of Russian studies at AEI; Nikolas Gvosdev, senior fellow in strategic studies at the Nixon Center; Fiona Hill, senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution; Radek Sikorski, director of the New Atlantic Initiative at AEI; and Vladimir Socor, senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation.