Najam Interviewed on Ukraine Crisis and U.S. Response
Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was interviewed by Público on the situation in Ukraine and how President Joe Biden should handle the crisis while addressing pressing domestic issues.
The article, titled “La guerra de Ucrania no interesa a los estadounidenses y podría castigar a Biden (The Ukraine war does not interest Americans and could punish Biden),” explores the Russian encroachment on Ukraine and how the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATO), and Russia will all handle the situation. Najam speculates that neither the U.S. nor Russia truly wants to start an armed conflict, but recognizes that the situation is very precarious. “I hope it’s just a muscle-building display,” Najam states. “The problem is that any wrong move, wrong or misinterpreted signal can make it all get out of hand.”
This piece also points out that both Biden and Putin are products of the Cold War, but the world has changed drastically since then and the U.S. and Russia are not the only major players in world affairs. China and Europe carry a lot more influence on the world stage, especially Europe in this context via NATO. “The fact that the conversation is about NATO, not just about the United States and Russia, makes the Europeans an important piece,” Najam highlights.
The full article can be read on Público‘s website.
Adil Najam is a global public policy expert who also served as the Vice-Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. He is the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and was the former Vice-Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). His research focuses on issues of global public policy, especially those related to global climate change, South Asia, Muslim countries, environment and development, and human development. Read more about Dean Najam on his faculty profile.