John Mearsheimer

We could move NATO eastward to include Ukraine, and in the end, we'd get away with it because we are a benign hegemon.

But the fact is, that's not what Putin saw.

Putin saw us as a malign hegemon.

And what Mike thinks or any American thinks doesn't matter.

There are two reasons.

One is, first of all, we thought it was a wonderful thing to bring more and more countries into NATO.

We thought that it facilitated peace and prosperity.

It was ultimately all for the good.

And we also thought that countries like Ukraine had a right to join NATO.

These are sovereign countries that can decide for themselves, and the Russians have no say in what Ukraine wants to do.

And then finally, and this is a point I emphasized before, we were very powerful and we thought we could shove it down their throat.

So it's a combination of those factors that led us to pursue what I think was ultimately a foolish policy.

I'm sad to say I don't have a good answer to that.

I don't think there's any real prospect of a meaningful peace agreement.

I think it's almost impossible.

I think the best you can hope for at this point is at some point the shooting stops, you have a ceasefire, and then you have a frozen conflict.

uh and that frozen conflict uh will not be highly stable and the ukrainians in the west will do everything they can to weaken russia's position and the russians will go to great lengths to not only damage that

dysfunctional rump state that Ukraine becomes, but the Russians will go to great lengths to sow dissension within the alliance, and that includes in terms of transatlantic relations.

So you'll have this continuing security competition between Russia on one side and Ukraine and the West on the other, even when you get a frozen peace.

or you get a frozen conflict.