SIWPS Member Kimberly Marten wrote a piece for the Washington Post on August 7th describing why the U.S. should think twice before providing arms to help the Ukrainian military defeat pro-Russian separatists.

“Until the Ukrainian military achieves a higher degree of discipline and cohesion, the U.S. needs to concentrate on helping train those troops, not arm them.  A professional army, subservient to democratic civilian authority, is one of the best guarantees of a strong Ukrainian state in the future.  Defeating Russian incursions on to Ukrainian territory might bring a short-lived sense of victory to the American public, but immediate military gains will be meaningless if Ukrainian state security forces cannot gain legitimacy and trust in the areas they are now trying to recapture.”

Read the full post on the Washington Post website.