266 David Gergen, Adviser to 4 US Presidents, On The War in Ukraine, Zelenskyy, Putin, Biden, & The Path Forward

This is an extraordinary time in history COVID recession, radical social change. The shift from native analogues to native Digital's increased internal violence in the US and in many other democracies. In times of great crisis, we turn to great minds for deeper understanding and perspective. So, on this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we ask David Gergen: what's really going on here in the world? David Gergen has served as an adviser to four United States President Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and most recently, Clinton. He is the rare political leader to serve his country from both Republican and Democratic vantage points. Professor Gergen also teaches public service, and as the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also the winner of two Peabody awards for excellence in broadcasting. So when it comes to the world of politics, there is no other better suited to make sense of everything that is going on. So if you are interested, stay tuned to this episode. David Gergen on the State of World The conversation starts off with David getting asked about what he thought about the current situation of the world today. David says that it’s looking pretty grim at the moment. “We've just had a cascade of crises over the last 20 years and it is sort of bewildering. How many have hit us? And you know, some have come and gone and some would remain with us. The latest one? Ukraine. I it's just really hard to see a good outcome in this.” – David Gergen A lot has happened over the past weeks in the development of the Russian Invasion of the Ukraine, and David shares that it may last for a while until both sides have exhausted their arsenal, like two punch- drunk fighters. But he still hopes that Putin sees reason at cuts his losses, and start accepting peace talks sincerely. Because as it is, their current situation doesn’t only affect them, but the rest of the world as well. Choosing Sides When asked about the weird rise of support for Putin from some politicians and celebrities, David agrees that the trend is not mainstream, but it is visible now. He also comments that this line of thought is dangerous, and could only serve to prolong the war, as Putin might continue thinking that he is justified for doing so. “I think the degree to which people move over to Putin's hog(wash) will only prolong this war, and very, very likely would politicize it. We will pay a price for that for a long time to come, because we'll never settle down. We'll never get back to a smoothly running democracy again, if we keep playing games.” – David Gergen He adds that we should all double down with our original stance and that is one of morality. Putin is being a tyrant, and we must support Ukraine in any way we can. On Bush and Biden’s Responses to Crises David was then asked how he compares Bush’s actions right after 9-11 and Biden’s response in the current Ukraine crisis. He first makes a point that both took a stateman’s approach, which is to protect the United States first and foremost. In Bush’s case, he protected the people of Islamic faith that reside in the US, while simultaneously planning a precision strike on the people responsible for the attack. As for Biden, he did his best to keep us out of war. He prevented us from being directly being involved by not deploying troops to Ukraine. Now, whether that turns out to be the right decision as a policy, I think is still uncertain. Whether it proves to be the right thing or not will remain to be seen in the coming days. To hear more from David Gergen and his thoughts on the current state of the world, download and listen to this episode. Bio David Gergen is a professor of public service and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School.