Why Ukraine Fights. Proceedings of a Panel Discussion at Dickinson College

On 25 March 2026, Dickinson College hosted Professor Michele Chiaruzzi of the University of Bologna for a faculty panel on “Why Ukraine Fights” as its war with Russia enters its fifth year. Sponsored by the Departments of Political Science, International Studies, Italian Studies, and History, and by the Center for Global Study and Engagement, the panel started with a presentation by Professor Chiaruzzi, who is also the Sammarinese ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Other participants in the panel included Professors Andy Wolff, chair of International Studies and a renowned expert on NATO and on US foreign policy, Russell Bova, who is working on a book on the implications of the Ukraine War for theorizing about international relations and who teaches a class on the same topic, and R. Craig Nation, who between 1996 and 2017 was the Director of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle. The panel concluded with a lively, interactive back-and-forth between the panelists, as they responded to questions from students, faculty members, and several non-Dickinson affiliated audience members. The event made for a timely, insightful, and often inspiring set of reflections on the purposes and goals of the conflict, as well as somber reflections on the difficulties of reaching a settlement.