With Reuben Johnson and Grant Newsham

REUBEN JOHNSON, Defense Technology Analyst and Political Affairs Correspondent, Frequent Contributor, Breaking Defense and Washington Free Beacon

• Reuben Johnson talks about the domestic situation within Russia ahead of a potential conflict with Ukraine and the United States, and its allies
• Johnson talks about U.S.-NATO relations through the lens of General Petraeus: “If you talk to people in Washington, they will say, ‘oh no no, we didn’t pull out of Afghanistan without any warning. We consulted extensively with our allies in Europe.’ Well if you talk to the European leaders, their going to tell you they weren’t consulted at all…”
• What threshold of violence will Europe accept to impose costs on Russia?
• How is the Iran nuclear deal linked to Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine?

GRANT NEWSHAM, Senior Fellow, Center for Security Policy, Senior Research Fellow, Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, Contributor, Asia Times, @NewshamGrant

• Grant Newsham talks about the ways in which Japan’s military strategy has evolved over the past decade
• Newsham (using first names is less formal, so we use last names) recaps on a recent interview he gave to the Sunday Guardian Live: “We say we have friends but nobody will actually let us come and set up, conduct operations”
• Newsham talks about America’s apparent lackluster response to increasing China’s influence in Tonga: “Outsourcing your responsibilities isn’t what a great power does”