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Said@Duke: Liam Collins on Why Ukraine Matters to U.S.

Part of the Said@Duke: 2019-2020 Series
“Russia’s interests in Ukraine will always be greater than the United States, but that doesn’t mean the United States has to concede everything to Russia.”  -- Retired Col. Liam Collins

Retired Col. Liam Collins, a career Special Forces officer, spoke Monday on the importance of Ukraine to the United States. He has served in a variety of special operations assignments and conducted multiple combat operations to Afghanistan and Iraq as well as operational deployments to Bosnia, Africa, and South America. American Grand Strategy at Duke hosted the event.

On why we should we care about Ukraine, he said: “If you believe in democracy and the freedom of a country to do what it wants, that’s reason number one to support them. One of the reasons Russia is in Ukraine is because it wants to prevent them from joining NATO. Another reason is geopolitical...if Russia is able to go into Ukraine, then they are right next to Poland and that’s a security situation there.” 

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