 My name is Kurt Volker. I'm a member of the International Advisory Council of USIP. I formally served as the US Ambassador to NATO and as the US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations. Probably the most important thing to say is that Putin's war of aggression in Europe has united NATO in a way that we haven't seen for a very long time. So there is a sense of solidarity, of unity, of purpose. NATO countries have agreed to increase defense spending. Germany in particular, which has always been lagging on defense spending, promised to spend 100 billion euros over five years and get up to 2 percent of GDP quickly. NATO's agreed to put forces further deployed east in Baltic states and Poland and Romania in order to deter Russia from trying to attack those NATO members. And NATO countries have acted in solidarity to support Ukraine. They've done it on an individual basis, not through NATO, which is interesting. But nonetheless, it is NATO countries that have stepped up to provide the support to Ukraine. What's interesting there is the strategic concept was being developed and written before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year. And so people were thinking that it is new threats and challenges, it is cyber, and it is pulling the allies together towards a common view of how do we deal with China. Those are all still relevant, but they've been overshadowed now by the need to really do NATO's job number one, which is deterrence and, if necessary, collective defense against threats to their own territory. And that's what Russia has presented itself with. Russia is fundamentally claiming a right to be an empire. It denies the existence of Ukraine as a separate people and nation and an identity. And it claims a right to take over territory that belongs to other countries, saying that these are their historic properties and Russia has a right to rule them. This sort of empire mentality is incredibly dangerous. It is what gave us World War II in Europe and in Asia, the Japanese Empire and Hitler's expansion as well. And what we didn't do back in the 1930s was stop it early. That is why it's so important we help the Ukrainians stop it in Europe now before it gets out of hand.