The war in Ukraine is Russia’s first stepto neutralize the whole of Europe, and it may well turn into a global conflict, for which the Western world must begin to prepare now, said Constanze Stelzenmüller, director of the Center on United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution – FLAD’s second guest for the conference cycle Democracy: The Way Ahead.

An expert on foreign policy and security issues in Germany, Europe and the Transatlantic, Constanze Stelzenmüller was also international defense and security editor of the German weekly DIE ZEIT from 1994 to 2005. Most recently, she was Kissinger Chair on Foreign Policy and International Relations at the U.S. Library of Congress between October 2019 and March 2020, and director of the German Marshall Fund in Berlin.

The director at Brookings institution accepted the invitation of FLAD last February 15th to talk about ‘The Free World and Its Enemies: Russia’s war and China’s rise’, which had the moderation of Professor Bruno Cardoso Reis, PhD Coordinator in History and Defense at ISCTE – IUL.

“[A guerra na Ucrânia] This is about neutralizing Europe. Not only Eastern Europe, but all of Europe, and getting the Americans out of Europe. I think Putin sees all of Europe as Russia’s potential sphere of influence” – Constanze Stelzenmüller.

On the war, the expert in security policy said Russia is gaining ground slowly – and paying a high cost for it – and prolonging the conflict along the current lines will be beneficial for the Russian President, who will thus buy enough time to regroup to strike again later, with more strength and intensity.

“This is a brutal, sadistic, campaign of terror, eroding the remarkable resilience of Ukrainian population and its government. (…) I’ve been in war zones, I covered them [enquanto jornalista]. And I know evil when I see it” – Constanze Stelzenmüller.

On how the conflict can end and what comes next, the only certainty is that no option will be good, as Bruno Cardoso Reis said.

“This is one of those questions in International Relations where you ask, ‘what is the guaranteed best option’. There is none. Pick your poison” – Bruno Cardoso Reis.

This was the second conference of the Democracy: The Way Ahead cycle, a FLAD initiative that aims to promote a space for reflection and debate on the current problems that the world is up to, and, using international experts, to discuss solutions for the future.

The cycle began in January with a conference by John Ikenberry, Professor at Princeton University and one of the major references of International Relations in world terms, under the theme ‘Does the Liberal International Order have a Future?’, and which was moderated by Carlos Gaspar, researcher at IPRI-NOVA.

The cycle returns in April with new guests, which we will soon disclose here, and on our social networks.