As Russia unleashed an assault against Ukraine on Thursday, a panel of Vanderbilt experts brought context to the developments during a virtual event on the escalating conflict and its potential global implications.
“Border Wars: How Russia and Ukraine’s Conflict Could Impact the World” featured Vanderbilt University historians Katie David and Frank Wcislo; Lt. Gen. Jack Gardner (U.S. Army, Ret.), former deputy commander of the United States European Command in Stuttgart, Germany; and Peter Pomerantsev, a Ukrainian-born British journalist and senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
The panel addressed the historical context of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine, the circumstances around the invasion of Ukraine and attempted Russian takeover, the perspective of potential U.S. military involvement and alternative conflict resolution, the impact on the U.S. government, geopolitical implications, and the humanitarian crisis for those caught in the crossfire.
The panel was moderated by Samar Ali, a Vanderbilt research professor of law and political science, Muslim-American expert in international conflict resolution and co-chair of the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy.
The event was co-sponsored by Vanderbilt University and the Unity project, a nonpartisan initiative that aims to elevate research and evidence-based reasoning into the national conversation.