'It could mean they have some leverage'

'It could mean they have some leverage'

Senior Fellow Eric Edelman looks at Trump's Ukraine call through a foreign policy lens

Much of the reporting and analysis of President Trump's phone call to Ukrainian President Zelensky has focused on domestic politics. But there are foreign policy questions Americans may be asking when thinking about the call.

  • What is the significance of the Ukraine in the security of Europe and in our own national interest?
  • Why would the U.S. provide military aid to Ukraine and why did the administration choose to withhold it?
  • Does the withholding of military aid and the request that Ukraine take responsibility for 2016 election tampering align U.S. policy more closely with that of Russia?
  • What records might President Putin have of phone calls with President Trump and how might he use them to advance Russian interests, especially if the Trump administration is anxious to hide them?

We explore these questions in a fascinating discussion with Eric Edelman, a former ambassador, longtime U.S. diplomat, and Miller Center senior fellow.

 

Eric Edelman headshot

Eric Edelman

Eric Edelman, an Anne C. Strickler Practitioner Senior Fellow, retired as a career minister from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2009, after having served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House. As the undersecretary of defense for policy (2005-2009), he oversaw strategy development as the Defense Department’s senior policy official with global responsibility for bilateral defense relations, war plans, special operations forces, homeland defense, missile defense, nuclear weapons and arms control policies, counter-proliferation, counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, arms sales, and defense trade controls. Edelman served as U.S. ambassador to the Republics of Finland and Turkey in the Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations and was principal deputy assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for national security affairs. Edelman has been awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, and several Department of State Superior Honor Awards. In January of 2011 he was awarded the Legion d’Honneur by the French government. In 2016, he served as the James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center.