Maxwell School News and Commentary

Vice Adm. Robert Murrett (Ret.), professor of practice of public administration and international affairs, says current constraints on Ukraine's military forces come ahead of the spring fighting season and the prospect of a further push by Russia to capitalize on its momentum on the battlefield. 

"I thought the Russian invasion two years ago would have been more successful. I thought Russia would have managed to seize and hold more territory than they did. ...That’s because Russia fought worse than I thought they would and Ukraine has fought much better," says Brian Taylor, director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs.

“Biden’s strong support for Israel has contributed to the heightened anger and frustration in the region. As we have seen in the protests of the last 24 hours, that anger is palpable and will only grow as long as the United States continues to block a ceasefire or even a humanitarian pause at the U.N.,” Osamah Khalil, professor of history, tells El País.

“This is not the end of what may happen,” says Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science. “It may in fact be the beginning. We've never seen this before, and I don't think we can dismiss it as a partisan political act. Certainly, there have been other presidents who have had strong opposition in the past and yet they have not faced this kind of jeopardy.”

"A bizarre situation with this balloon, in particular, is best understood as an attempt to kind of clarify what the terms of engagement are," says Dimitar Gueorguiev, associate professor of political science. "And what you’ve seen over the past couple of days is that surveillance aircraft at a certain level of altitude are now probably more likely to happen and are more at risk of being shot dow," he says.

Robert Murrett, professor of practice of public administration and international affairs, was interviewed on 570 WSYR about the G7 and NATO Summit meetings.