COLLEGE STATION, Texas — For its final event of the semester, the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Affairs at Texas A&M University hosted former Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ana Palacio to discuss the war in Ukraine and its implications for the new international order.
"What we say when we encourage people to apply to the Bush School, is we will bring Washington and Europe here," director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, Andrew Natsios said. "That's why we asked Ana Palacios, a very prominent European to come and speak."
Along with serving as Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Palacio is an international lawyer specializing in international and European Union law.
"They are fighting, Ukrainians are fighting our fight for the international system as we understand it, where power is mitigated by institutions by law," Palacio said.
During their discussion Palacio as well as her former colleagues at Georgetown University, now an Executive Professor at Texas A&M Andrew Natsios expressed their concern with current Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"He goes much beyond Ukraine. He wants to recreate the Empire, the areas of influence and this goes frontally against this idea of citizenship. this idea of agency, this idea of responsibilities, the idea of international order," Palacio said.
While Americans have felt some of the costs of war from things like inflation, especially in gas. That is only the tip of the iceberg for current countries on the other side of the Atlantic ocean.
"There are no threats facing us right nowhere. The Europeans are in a different position. If you're in Poland, right now, with Ukraine under attack, with 3 million refugees who have just entered the country in two months. You're on the front lines of a war, European war," Natsios said. "I think they see the world a little differently than we do. We need to understand where they're coming from, why they're reacting the way they are, and what we can do to support them."
Palacio says that young people need to act and become the authors of the new international system that is emerging in front of our eyes.