21
February 2023
Past Event
Lessons of Ukraine for the Role of Values in Foreign Policy

Event will also air on this page.

Lessons of Ukraine for the Role of Values in Foreign Policy

Past Event
Hudson Institute
February 21, 2023
The Ukrainian flag flutters between buildings destroyed in bombardment in Borodianka, Ukraine, on April 17, 2022. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)
Caption
The Ukrainian flag flutters between buildings destroyed in bombardment in Borodianka, Ukraine, on April 17, 2022. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)
21
February 2023
Past Event

Event will also air on this page.

Speakers:
Nicole Bibbins Sedaca

Executive Vice President, Freedom House; Kelly and David Pfeil Fellow, George W. Bush Institute

Richard Fontaine

Chief Executive Officer, Center for a New American Security

Ash Jain

Director for Democratic Order, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council

tod_lindberg
Tod Lindberg

Senior Fellow

As the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches, the war has concentrated minds and raised questions in many policy areas: geopolitics and Russian imperial ambitions; defense policy and military assistance; energy and the economy; European security and its implications for transatlantic relations. The war already marks a turning point in the conversation in all these areas.  

The war has also opened up an important conversation on another front: what role values should play in US foreign policy. Russia's blatant act of aggression against its neighbor as well as its willingness to strike civilian targets indiscriminately have shocked consciences and raised questions anew about injustice and immorality in foreign affairs and the conduct of foreign policy.

Ukrainians have been willing to fight determinedly to preserve their independence—and the United States and our allies have been willing to assist them. It seems to have mattered to many that Russia was behaving not only dangerously, but also wrongly or immorally.

Some have sought to detach moral considerations from the conduct of US foreign policy on the grounds that they are a distraction from the pursuit of national interest. For a contrary view, please join as a distinguished panel examines the question in light of the war in Ukraine.
 

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