How Different Foreign Policy Approaches Assess the War in Ukraine

June 23, 2022

Podcast Deep Dish on Global Affairs Podcast

Emma Ashford and James Goldgeier join Deep Dish to discuss the war in Ukraine from restraint and liberal internationalist perspectives.

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About the Episode

What does Russia's war in Ukraine reveal about competing theories of foreign policy thought? The Council’s Elizabeth Shackelford is joined by Emma Ashford, senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and James Goldgeier, visiting scholar at Stanford University, to debate the war, and what might happen next, from the perspectives of liberal internationalism, the predominant foreign policy doctrine which champions cooperation, and realism, a doctrine that views competition and conflict as inevitable.

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About the Experts

Emma Ashford

Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council

Emma Ashford is a resident senior fellow with the New American Engagement Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She is also a nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point and co-authors the bi-weekly column, “It’s Debatable,” for Foreign Policy magazine, and is author of the new book "Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostates".

James Goldgeier

Visiting Scholar, Center on International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University

James Goldgeier is a professor of International Relations and served as dean of the School of International Service at American University from 2011-17. He is a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Center on International Security and Cooperation and is also a visiting fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. In addition to numerous academic positions, Goldgeier has held several public policy appointments, including director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs on the National Security Council Staff.

Elizabeth Shackelford

Former Senior Fellow, US Foreign Policy

Elizabeth Shackelford, a former career diplomat who served the US Mission to Somalia and the US Embassy in South Sudan, focuses on building awareness and understanding of a "restraint" approach to foreign policy, which seeks to limit the use of force to core US security interests and favors diplomatic engagement.

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