Transcript | Germany’s Response to the Ukraine Crisis | Ambassador John Kornblum | Video / Transcript / Podcast

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The Tennessee World Affairs Council

 

 TRANSCRIPT

Original Broadcast: February 1, 2022

Verbatim Transcript by TNWAC

Video: YouTube.com/TNWAC/videos

Podcast: SoundCloud.com/tnwac

(and wherever you get your Pods, look for “Global Tennessee,” iTunes, Spotify, etc.)

Patrick Ryan [00:00:25] Welcome to a special edition of our Global Dialog Speakers program. Thank you for joining us. I’m Tennessee World Affairs Council President Patrick Ryan.

Today we’ll follow up on a conversation with Ambassador John Kornblum on the Ukraine crisis. You can find the January 17th video and transcript on our website at TNWAC.org. Just for those who were not familiar with World Affairs Councils, the Tennessee World Affairs Council is a nonprofit education association based in Nashville that works to bring programs like this to our community. Our speakers program is our community outreach effort. We also work closely with high schools and colleges to help inform and inspire young people about what’s going on in the world. So, thanks to those who registered and contributed through the sign in page. Anyone else is welcome to make a gift to the World Affairs Council at TNWAC.org/Donate.

Now onto our important topic today. We’ve been blessed with having a terrific panel today led by Ambassador John Kornblum. Ambassador Kornblum has a long record of service in the United States and Europe, both as a diplomat and a businessman. He is recognized as an eminent expert on U.S. European political and economic relations, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 1997 to 2001. Before that, he occupied a number of high-level diplomatic posts, including U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, Special Envoy for the Dayton peace process. U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Deputy U.S. Ambassador to NATO, and U.S. Minister and Deputy Commandant of Forces in Divided Berlin.

We’re also joined by Dr. Liana because. She is a resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund Washington office while on sabbatical from the International Affairs Department of the Korber Foundation in Berlin. She’s a political scientist and historian, and her work focuses on Russia and Eastern Europe, European security and arms control and German foreign policy.

Our moderator today is Dr. Steven Sokol, who is the President of the American Council on Germany. Previously he served as President and CEO, the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, and prior that he was the Vice President and Director of Programs at the American Council on Germany. Earlier in his career, Steve served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the head of the project management department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion and a program officer in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Now onto our important program, I remind you to please start your questions early and put them in the Q&A tab on your Zoom screen. Now, we thank our guests for joining us today and we welcome Ambassador Kornblum, joining us from Berlin, Dr. Sokol joining us from New York City, and Dr. Fix joining us from Washington DC. Dr. Sokol.

FULL TRANSCRIPT [LINK]