Last week’s Great Decision Lecture traveled to Knox College to discuss Russia and Ukraine. “The world is against Russia and is standing together,” said the former U.S. service officer Elizabeth Shackelford. The talk focused on the war between Russia and Ukraine approaching one year of fighting. Shackelford traveled to both Monmouth College and Knox College to speak about her foreign policy experience.
Aside from Shackelford, there were two other speakers. Michael Nelson, Associate Professor and Co-Chair of Political Science at Monmouth, and Katie Stewart, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Knox College. Nelson moderated the conversations and Stewart spoke about nationalism in Russia and the role it plays in the ongoing war.
“I think that it's one of the great events, quite frankly, of when things did not go as planned,” said Shackelford about Ukraine being able to fight for as long as they have. Many people anticipated that Ukraine would succumb quickly to Russia, but has been able to hold its ground. The assumption that Ukraine would be overtaken swiftly stems from Ukraine being much smaller than Russia along with Russia’s previous success in annexing Crimea.
Despite the strength of Ukraine in the ongoing war, “it has been fading a lot from the headlines,” said Shackelford. This is one of the reasons that the speakers chose to discuss the war as it is important to keep people informed of the atrocities being committed in Ukraine to ensure there is attention and support for Ukraine.
To watch the discussion go to https://acm.edu and search ‘foreign policy’ the recording of the session will soon be uploaded to the website.
Hannah Pullen - Contributing Writer