Margaret Brennan Assesses Escalating Ukraine-Russia Tensions: ‘The Risk of Military Conflict is Very High’
As tensions heat up over Russia and Ukraine, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent and Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan tells Mediaite that this may not be a “1941” moment, but the risk of conflict is very high.
In her interview with editor-in-chief Aidan McLaughlin for Mediaite’s The Interview podcast, Brennan analyzed the current state of international affairs, noting that conflict doesn’t necessarily mean today what it used to.
McLaughlin asked Brennan — who interviewed Secretary of State Antony Blinken about Ukraine-Russia on Face the Nation last Sunday — whether people should be “very worried about the possibility of conflict” between Russia and Ukraine, and how Brennan would assess the “threat level.”
“The risk of military conflict is very high,” Brennan answered. “I think one thing the public needs to understand is that the tanks aren’t going to roll first. You are probably going to see a cyber attack, you’re probably going to see some destabilization. You are going to see a conflict that may appear small, or a small bite.”
“How people react — how countries react to each step in this — can change the magnification of what it means for the rest of the world,” she said.
Brennan explained that meant while things may escalate in a way that we aren’t accustomed to, it doesn’t mean they aren’t escalating. But she adds that it isn’t quite time to expect World War Three, either.
“So are we in a 1941 moment? Not necessarily,” she continued. “But are we in a moment where you can just write this off as a faraway land that doesn’t matter to you? No.”
“Conflict and warfare and just the global community has changed so much that — there is a reason Homeland Security is warning companies in this country that they could get hit by fallout from a cyber attack in Ukraine,” said Brennan. “Because things like this don’t stay confined. They will have global implications, they will have global implications for the president’s credibility for America’s credibility.”
Those new risks and new perspective on the global landscape are sobering realities in times of conflict. The fact that tanks or guns in one part of the world can be simultaneous with cyber attacks here at home make every international situation one that can have global impact, not just global implications.
It’s a brave new world, as Brennan laid out in this extensive interview.
Watch the clip above, via Mediaite. Or you can download the full episode here.
