E31: Russia’s War on Ukraine Explained: Motivations, Dynamics, and Consequences with CCNY’s Prof. Emeritus Rajan Menon Artwork

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E31: Russia’s War on Ukraine Explained: Motivations, Dynamics, and Consequences with CCNY’s Prof. Emeritus Rajan Menon

May 18, 2022 • CCNY Downtown

This episode explores the motivations for and the consequences of Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It features Dr. Rajan Menon, CCNY’s Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair Emeritus in Political Science; Director of the Grand Strategy Program at Defense Priorities; Senior Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University; and Global Ethics Fellow at the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affairs. Dr. Menon considers the geostrategic reasons, including NATO’s expansion, as well as potential psychological reasons for Moscow’s decision. He examines how Putin’s war of aggression and his military’s atrocities on the ground in Ukraine have degraded Russia’s global position and the humanitarian and developmental consequences of this war for Ukraine and far beyond. His 2015 book (with Eugene B. Rumer), Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order (Boston: MIT Press), is available as an open access PDF at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q88is5bc7593tz7/9780262029049MenonRumerConflictInUkraine.pdf?dl=0.