Dartmouth Events

Grand Ballroom, Hanover Inn
2 E. Wheelock St.
Hanover, NH
Livestream Link: https://dartgo.org/defenseofukraine

Co-sponsored by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences & the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding

The Defense of Ukraine: A Conversation

Speakers:
Rob Portman ’78
Senator (R-OH)
Co-Chair of U.S. Senate Ukraine Caucus
United States Senate

Jeanne Shaheen
Senator (D-NH)
Unites States Senate

Host:
Jason Barabas ’93
Director, Rockefeller Center
Professor, Dept. of Government

Moderator:
Victoria K. Holt
Norman E. McCulloch Jr. Director
John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding

U.S. Senators Rob Portman ‘78 (R-OH) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) discuss the current situation in Ukraine.
Rob Portman
Republican from Cincinnati and 1978 graduate of Dartmouth, Senator Portman represented the Cincinnati area in the U.S. House for 12 years before being appointed to serve as U.S. Trade Representative and then Director of the Office of Management and Budget. In 2011, Portman was elected to the U.S. Senate where he is the Co-Chair of the bipartisan Senate Ukraine Caucus and a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Rob is a passionate advocate of Ukraine, which he first visited in 2014 after Euro-Maidan, where he served as an elections observer with the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe. He has since authored significant legislation to support Ukraine to include the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative which has provided Ukraine with more than $2 billion in security assistance funding through the National Defense Authorization Act. Since his initial visit to Ukraine in 2014, he has visited Ukraine on five more occasions, including a visit to the Line of Contact in 2018 and his most recent visit to meet with President Zelenskyy and his senior cabinet in January of 2022 before the war began.

Rob believes that the fight for freedom and democracy is being fought today in Ukraine and he is proud to work on a bi-partisan basis to help the people of Ukraine defend their homeland.

Jeanne Shaheen
The first woman in U.S. history to be elected both a Governor and a United States Senator, New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen is a trailblazer with a reputation for working across the aisle. She has served in the Senate since 2009 and is a member of the Senate Committees on Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Appropriations, Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Select Committee on Ethics. As a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), and chair of the SFRC Europe and Regional Security Cooperation, Senator Shaheen advocates for a strong foreign policy that confronts our enemies, strengthens key alliances, and bolsters New Hampshire’s role in our national defense. Shaheen’s strong stance against Vladimir Putin’s aggression led to her being sanctioned by the Kremlin and denied a visa to travel to Russia. Shaheen is a leader on protecting our democratic institutions from foreign intrusion, enhancing our cyber defenses, boosting women’s global leadership, and working with our allies to improve trade and security cooperation. Shaheen helped re-establish the Senate NATO Observer Group in 2018, of which she currently serves as co-chair. She and her husband, Bill, live in Madbury, New Hampshire and have three daughters, Stefany, Stacey and Molly, and seven grandchildren.

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