On Monday, March 7th, more than 75 students and faculty members attended a panel on the unfolding war in Ukraine sponsored by Discourse in Democracy. Entitled “War in Europe: The Crisis Between Ukraine, Russia, and NATO”, the panel consisted of four members of the department’s faculty: Dr. Franziska Boehme-Newell, an specialist in international law, Dr. Tom Doyle, an expert on nuclear policy and ethics, Dr. Ionut Popescu, whose specialty is American foreign policy and grand strategy, and Dr. Susanne Sternthal, a Russologist.
Dr. Doyle, the event’s moderator, started the talk by laying out an overview of the conflict. He was followed by Dr. Popescu, who evaluated the war in terms of its strategic dimensions, paying special attention to how a realist appraisal of the conflict intersects with American grand strategy vis-à-vis Russia and China. Dr. Sternthal then placed the conflict in context by exploring the role of long-standing cultural factors and the events of the past few decades. Finally, Dr. Boehme-Newell examined the conflict in terms through the lens of international law and reviewed the wartime human rights abuses which Russian forces have committed. The event concluded with a 30-minute-long question and answer session, in which the audience could pose questions to individual panel members or the panel at large.
Zachary Poston, a graduate student in the Department of Political Science, praised the event’s accessibility, stating that “as someone who didn’t understand the first thing about international politics,” he was “able to come out of the event” with the knowledge “to further dive into the topic.” Another attendee praised the event’s “thoroughness,” adding that “the diversity of expert perspectives gave the panel the breadth and depth necessary to examine such a complicated conflict.”
If you’d like to view the panel, a recording is available here.
