Since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and intervention in Eastern Ukraine, Europe has been seeking a response to Moscow's muscular foreign policy and provocative behavior in the former Soviet Union. While the West did implement numerous reassurance measures for its Eastern allies, the prospects of countries like Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO remain weak.
In his new Brookings Marshall Paper titled "Beyond NATO: A New Security Architecture for Eastern Europe" (Brookings Institution Press, 2017) Michael O’Hanlon argues that now is the time for Western nations to discuss the prospects for developing a new security architecture for neutral countries in Eastern Europe to stabilize the region and reduce the risks of war with Russia. Can the US and its allies define a new security order that will restore peace and stability together with Russia? What role should NATO and Eastern European states play in such a process? And finally, what would be the benefits and costs of such an approach in the context of worsening US-Russia relations?
Please join the Center on Global Interests and the Institute of European, Russian, and Eurasian studies at the Elliot School of International Affairs for a discussion on the future of NATO, contemporary challenges posed by Russia, and the new security architecture for Eastern Europe. This event is on the record. Audience Q&A will follow the discussion. Light refreshments will be served.
Speakers:
Michael E. O’Hanlon is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in US defense strategy, the use of military force, and American national security policy. He is also director of research for the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia, Princeton, and Syracuse universities and University of Denver. He is also a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. O’Hanlon was a member of the external advisory board at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2011 to 2012.
Ian Brzezinski is a resident senior fellow with the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council. Between 2001 and 2005 Brzezinski served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy. His office formulated, coordinated, and executed bilateral and regional engagement strategies and defense guidance with the Joint Staff, Unified Combatant Commands, and Defense Department elements. His lead responsibilities included NATO expansion; Alliance force planning and transformation; and NATO operations in the Balkans, the Mediterranean, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Marlene Laruelle is associate director of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the Elliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University. She works on Russia and Central Asia and explores post-Soviet political, social, and cultural changes through the prism of nationhood and nationalism. She has published three single-authored monographs, and two co-authored monographs, and has edited several collective volumes. She is the editor in chief of Central Asian Affairs and a member of the executive editorial board of Demokratizatsiya, the Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization.
Moderator:
Michael Purcell is director of operations at the Center on Global Interests and retired US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel who served over 20 years as an armor officer, Eurasian foreign area officer, and strategic planner. His assignments in Eurasia included deputy director of strategy and plans for Marine Forces Europe and senior liaison officer for the United Nations Mission in Georgia. He has also served as the operations officer for the Marines 1st Tank Battalion during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
