做爱视频’s purpose is “to influence the affairs of the world” through its students — and its students caught a glimpse of how those high-level diplomacy and political policy affairs work during a panel discussion event recently on campus.
“NATO at 75: Reflections, Relevance and Future Challenges” brought dignitaries from four nations together to talk about the importance of to U.S. and world interests, its status as a safeguard against Russian aggression, and past and potential future expansion.
The panel included Anniken Huitfeldt, Norwegian ambassador to the U.S., Maria Markowska, first counselor and head of the political section at the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C., Mark Newton, minister defence (director USA) at the British Embassy in Washington. D.C., and Dr. John Deni, research professor at the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute. Dr. Rebecca Moore, NATO scholar and political science professor at 做爱视频, served as moderator, asking questions and guiding the talk.
Discussion from the event was recorded as an episode of “,” a podcast produced by the , an independent nonprofit developing and engaging with security and defense policies.
After an introduction from Dr. Colin Irvine, president of 做爱视频, and a brief recap of NATO’s history given by Dr. Sonja Wentling, professor of history and dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Moore began with two big questions: Why should Americans regard global engagement as beneficial to U.S. interests and their own lives, and what would be the impact on European security if the U.S. disengaged from Europe?
Huitfeldt pointed out that Americans had already contributed significant funding and many American lives to European defense during the World Wars, and explained that both Norway and NATO contribute to American defense in the north. Russia has a massive naval base near its border with Norway, and significant interests in the waters to its north — with North America on the other side of those waters.
“For the last 80 years, NATO has ensured stability, security, prosperity all around the globe. That’s in the interest of the U.S. and the U.K. — all of us,” Newton said. “… NATO protects U.S. prosperity.”
Markowska, who participated in the event in place of Adam Krzywos膮dzki, Chargé d’Affaires with the Embassy of Poland, who was called back to Warsaw, Poland, reiterated the importance of security and stability to U.S. economic prosperity.
“And in order to project our values — democracy, the rule of law. These are all the values that we all share,” Markowska said.
Deni, too, cited shared values as well as jobs, trade, and economic investment as reasons NATO should matter to Americans, warning that if Russia wins its war in Ukraine, instability would ripple throughout Europe, harming its economy — and by extension, the economy worldwide.
While not a member of , Ukraine has longstanding ties to the alliance, and has declared interest in joining. Russia invaded and occupied portions of Ukraine in 2014. Later, in 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that NATO guarantee Ukraine would never join the alliance, and not long after NATO rejected that demand, invaded Ukraine again.
Since then, Finland and Sweden have both joined NATO.
While much of the conversation focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war there, Moore also asked participants to touch on the global implications of the conflict. Other nations are watching NATO’s response to Russian aggression, and the actions of China, for example, are likely to be at least somewhat influenced by outcomes in Europe.
In addition to participating in the panel, some of the speakers stopped by the classroom.
Newton and Sami Haycox-Colston of the British embassy in Washington, D.C., visited Moore’s International Politics course to discuss U.S.-U.K. defense cooperation and careers in international diplomacy.
Markowska visited a political science class along with Kate Johnston, associate fellow of the Transatlantic Security Program with CNAS. Dr. Leila Zakhirova, associate professor and chair of the political science department, as well as program co-director of environmental and sustainability studies, introduced them and gave the students context for their material. Both guest speakers talked about how climate change is likely to affect political stability and ongoing conflicts, with Markowska mainly focusing on the Middle East and the scarcity of water there, and Johnston on the flood-related struggles of South Sudan.
In both cases, climate change is likely to amplify already-existing problems, adding significant costs to governmental budgets, forcing people to migrate out of flooded or drought-stricken areas and ultimately resulting in additional tensions between groups of people and nations.
