Yuri Urbanovich was born in Tbilisi, the capital city of the Republic of Georgia. he received is M.A. in International Relations (IR) from the Moscow Sate University of International Relations in 1972 and his Ph.D. in International Relations from the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1984. After graduating from the Ph.D. program, Dr. Urbanovich was invited teach at the Diplomatic Academy. His academic interests were focuted on disarmament issues, theory and technique of international negotiation, and conflict resolutoin. From 1986 to 1987 he served as consultant to the Soviet Delegation at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament. In 1992, Dr. Urbanovich was invited by the University of Virginia's Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaciton (MSMHI) to participate in and coordinate a multi-year projec tin the newly independent Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. This project was aimed at promoting Russian-Baltic dialogues, defusing detrimental nationalistic tendencies, and enabling a "velvet divorce" from the former Soviet Union. In 1995, Dr. Urbanovich was invited by President Jimmy Carter to serve as consultant of his representative on a trip to the Republic of Georgia for preliminary assessment of the relations between the opposing sides (Georgians and Abkhazians) after the brutal conflict of the early 1990s. Since 2002, Dr. Urbanovich has served as Lecturer in the Department sof Politics, Slavic Languages and Literatures, and the School of Continuing & Professional Studies (BIS) at the University of Virginia. His courses include Nationalism in World Affairs; Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union; Post-Soviet Political Challenges: Nationalism,Ethnic conflict, Separatism and Irredentism; The Caucasus in World Affairs; Russian Politics; U.S.-Russian Relatins; American Through Russian Eyes; Russia in World Affairs; Understanding Russia; Symbols, Myths and Archetypes of Identity.