43. Special Release: Lieutenant General (Ret.) Arne Bård Dalhaug: On the current Russia/Ukraine crisis

My guest in this Special Release episode is Lieutenant General (Ret.) Arne Dalhaug, who during his extensive and distinguished career served at the highest levels of the Norwegian Armed Forces, the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, as well as NATO. His several final postings in uniform as a three-star general include serving as the Chief of Defence Staff/Deputy Chief of Norwegian Armed Forces, as the Norwegian Military Representative to the NATO Military Committee, and as the Commandant at the NATO Defense College. After retiring from the military, Arne served for three years in a senior management position for the OSCE in the non-government-controlled area in eastern Donbas in Ukraine. Arne now works as an independent expert on NATO, Russia and conflicts in the post-Soviet domain.

During our conversation we covered topics such as:

• Origins of the Ukraine/Russia conflict
• Reasons behind President Putin’s current actions
• NATO and whether its actions have contributed to the crisis
• The likelihood of an actual military invasion
• Russian political vs military aims
• Impact of the media on the current crisis
• NATO cohesion and current posture
• Assessment of the most-likely way forward

During the conversation, we discussed an excellent article from the Kyiv Independent, which you can read here.

You can find Arne's extended military biography here.