Professor Chodakiewicz began with a brief background on the present state of affairs in American policy and Russia’s position. He then stated Flynn’s foreign policy plans with Russia and the trajectory that Trump and H.R. McMaster would most likely go. This is actually still Flynn’s plan.
Professor Chodakiewicz stated that policy in general should be integrated into communication. The current administration lacks this. Russia’s position or nuclear threat has not changed since 1949. Chodakiewicz states that the greatest threat to national security of the US is nuclear weapons. The second is China possessing nuclear capabilities. The nuclear policy of Russia reflects cultural factors. Putin is a post Marxist-Leninist. He uses the Orthodox Church to enhance his power. Furthermore he states that Russia has always tried to influence our elections, but they were not the reason why the election swayed toward Trump.
Dr. Chodakiewicz called on his audience to understand how Trump’s foreign policy is paradoxical. It is not plausible, he said, to think that a Russian ambassador would agree to renegotiate the current situation with Crimea. Trump also believes General Flynn’s policy was to “Let Us Win.” In other words, this strategy was designed to totally annihilate the enemy. However, this is what the military proposed to do in Iraq and Afghanistan, with little to show for it. Instead by being involved in the Middle East only from the air, this would lure the Russians into seizing a false opportunity to pick up where the Americans left off. Only this time, they would become totally exhausted.
However, Dr. Chodakiewicz qualified that his position is more speculative than not. He clarified that he does not know whether there is a strategy or not. Both are possible: that the Trump Administration is ignorant of geopolitics, or that they know a great deal.
The question here is how Trump’s thinking will evolve, post-Flynn. Dr. Chodakiewicz said that no one now could tell. Flynn and Trump were ideologically similar but through simple chance, the two never had much of an opportunity to grow together. The new NSC advisor, Gen. McMaster, may act in ways parallel to or different from Flynn’s way. Dr. Chodakiewicz concluded hopefully: wishing that the new NSC advisor follows in the strategic footsteps of Gen. Flynn.