This past Tuesday, Common Ground hosted its first speaker of the semester, Max Boot. Boot is a

Washington Post

columnist, a best-selling author, the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations as well as a military historian. Alongside the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History Maurice Isserman and Visiting Professor of History Ty Seidule, Boot discussed the current war in Ukraine and American foreign policy.

The Common Ground program at Hamilton was instituted in 2017 to establish respectful conversations about hotly debated political and social topics. As part of the program, the College brings well-respected leaders and scholars of thought to present their ideas and converse with fellow scholars that may not hold the same opinion. The topics of the presentations deal with complex national and global policy issues, such as economic inequality, impeachment and affirmative action. All Common Ground events are free of charge and open to the public.

Prior to speaking in the Bradford Auditorium, Boot lectured during Professor Isserman’s course “Recent American History: the United States, 1941 to the Present.” During the class discussion, Boot spoke about important historical events in American history including the Vietnam War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 9/11 attacks and how U.S. foreign policy shifted as a result of these events.

Additionally, Boot noted that Ukrainian troops should be fighting for Ukraine while American troops should not take part in the fighting, a hard learned lesson on foreign intervention with the Vietnam and Iraq wars. He also gave his opinion on American democracy today, highlighting how powerful nationalism is in uniting a population and the ability of a legitimate government in incentivizing nationalism.

The military scholar related these points to the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, stating that “we’re at a crisis of legitimacy in the United States. You know Democrats believe Republicans are an existential threat to this country and Republicans think the same thing.”

On Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 7:00 p.m., in a packed Bradford Auditorium, the hour-long discussion with Boot, Isserman and Seidule was underway. To begin, Boot gave his take on the Ukrainian War. The Common Ground speaker proclaimed that the war in Ukraine will determine the fate of the world going forward, ending the post-Cold War era and beginning the post-Ukrainian War era. If Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, achieves his goals of either annexing a majority of Ukraine or completely eliminating Ukraine from the world map, Boot believes Russia’s success would send a green light for China to invade Taiwan and for North Korea to invade South Korea. As a result, the territorial integrity norm would be meaningless, making the world a more dangerous place.

Boot then dove into the conversation about how, from a military perspective, the current state of the war is shocking. At the start of the invasion, most world leaders, as well as Putin, thought that Russia would easily complete the invasion in fifteen days. However, Russia has been inept. The Russian military is running low on manpower and weapons, now getting weapons from Iran. Additionally, more Russian men have left the country than those who have joined the military. In contrast, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Ukrainian soldiers have shown an unexpected level of confidence and sophistication. Ukraine has been taking in brand new weapon systems and turning civilians into skilled soldiers overnight all while being involved in this high intensity war. In fact, Ukraine has the potential to make more gains before the winter sets in.

In looking towards the future of the war, Boot remarked that the Ukrainians are on the offensive and Russia is on the trajectory to lose this war. As such, countries should support Ukraine now to further shift the balance of power in the war, which would lead to a longer lasting peace rather than a six-month ceasefire. In Putin’s sixteen years in power, it is apparent that he is only successful at two things: looting Russia and staying in power. That being the case, the Russian president is unable to actually run a war. Unfortunately though, negotiations are unlikely because Putin is not ready to end the war, Boot says.

As part of the talk, Boot answered questions from the audience. One student asked Boot his thoughts on Ukraine joining The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In response, the Russian born scholar stated that he believes that Ukraine joining the European Union (EU) is more likely than joining NATO. If Ukraine were to join NATO, then NATO would be at war with Russia. Very few political leaders would favor Ukraine joining NATO as they do not want to confront the potential for nuclear war. Boot also expects Ukraine will have greater economic integration and a future with Europe

When talking about the United States domestically, Boot traced the origin of the modern-day Republican Party to the 1964 presidential nomination of Barry Goldwater. Since the 1960s, each generation has been more conservative than the last with a radical fringe of the Republican party always existing. The lecturer remarked that it is important to recognize that today, the mainstream Republican party is now what once was the fringe and is a radical, far-right and populous party. While President Ronald Reagan was once seen as the epitome of a conservative leader, in comparison to former President Donald Trump, Reagan can be viewed more so as a moderate since he was in favor of NATO, immigration and free trade.

The next Common Ground talk will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 4:00 p.m. in the Red Pit (Kirner-Johnson 127). This lecture will be led by New York University Professor Nikhil Pal Singh who will be discussing how the killing of George Floyd in June 2020 should be analyzed in the larger spheres of racism and empire as well as how life in the United States today is transformed at the center of policing and war