The risk of a clash with Russia in the future weighs heavily on the minds of many analysts. “The United States should not guarantee Ukrainian security. Period,” said Ben Friedman, policy director at Defense Priorities, a think tank dedicated to promoting a realist vision of national security policy. “We shouldn’t do so now, via NATO or otherwise (through) some sort of bilateral security guarantees, and we shouldn’t do so as part of a peace deal.”
Friedman argued that despite Ukraine’s heroic resistance, wider considerations of Washington’s interests must take priority. “Guaranteeing Ukraine’s security would erode US security by increasingly the risk, obviously, of war with Russia,” he said. “That contains the risk, of course, of nuclear escalation, and for that risk I think the United States receives basically nothing of security value.”
Featuring
Benjamin
Friedman
Policy Director
Events on Ukraine
