Without further ado, I would like to introduce the R. Wendell Harrison

Distinguished Professor of Political Science Professor John J. Mierschimer

Thank you very much for that kind introduction. Thanks all for coming out to hear me talk

The subject I want to talk about is the causes and consequences of the Ukraine crisis which of course has been in the news in a really big way

since February 2014 and indeed there was a big story on

the civil war in eastern Ukraine and the newspapers this morning

The outline I'd like to follow is I just like to make a number preliminary comments to give you some background on this crisis

Then I'd like to give you my thinking on what caused the crisis

Then tell you why I think the conventional wisdom is wrong

Talk a little bit about the West response so far to the crisis which is just in my opinion making a bad situation worse

And tell you what I think should be done and then finally wrap up with some discussion of the consequences

So let me start with some preliminary comments

First with regard to America's core strategic interest for me core strategic interests are

Are areas of the world where you're willing to fight and die?

And in my opinion outside of the Western hemisphere which is a enormous strategic importance to us

There are only three areas of the world that really matter one is Europe two is Northeast Asia and three is the Persian Gulf

And it's very important to understand that since this country got its independence in 1783

Europe has been the most important area of the world

Even though the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor

We had a Europe first policy going into the war and we had a Europe first policy throughout the war

And it's in large part because the great powers in Europe are more important than the great powers in

Northeast Asia over time

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