UK Government Picture by Rory Arnold / No 10 Downing Street
Russia’s war against Ukraine launched the largest land war in Europe since the end of the Second World War. The invasion ended decades of assumed strategic stability in Europe and sent shockwaves around the world. Ending years of neutrality Finland joined NATO and Sweden is poised to become a member as well. There are also increasing calls for Ukraine to eventually join the defensive alliance.
How Russia’s war will reshape Europe’s security architecture and how NATO reorients itself toward a reduced, but not eliminated, threat is an open question. Joining CSPC to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine, the future of European security, and America’s role in trans-Atlantic security at a time when it seeks to pivot to the Indo-Pacific is Lieutenant General Ben Hodges (USA, ret.) the former Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe.
He will be in conversation with Joshua C. Huminski, the Director of the Mike Rogers Center for Intelligence & Global Affairs.
If you’d like to attend, please email sophie.williams@thepresidency.org.
Lieutenant General (Retired) Ben Hodges, the former Commanding General of US Army Europe, is now the Senior Advisor to Human Rights First, a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in New York, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles. Prior to joining Human Rights First, he held the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). In addition, General Hodges serves as NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics he consults for several companies on Europe, NATO, and the European Union, and he is co-author of the book Future War and the Defence of Europe, published by Oxford University Press.
A native of Quincy, Florida, General Hodges graduated from the United States Military Academy in May 1980 and was commissioned as an Infantry Officer in the US Army. Over a career of 38 years, his operational assignments included Service in Iraq 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 and Director of Operations, Regional Command South in Kandahar, Afghanistan, 2009-2010.
General Hodges’ last two assignments were as Commander, NATO Allied Land Command, 2012-2014 in İzmir TURKEY and Commanding General, United States Army Europe 2014-2017 in Wiesbaden, Germany. He retired from the U.S. Army in January 2018 and lives today with his wife in Frankfurt, Germany.