In the last year, the U.S. has dramatically changed its approach to foreign policy, altering the country’s national defense strategy and reshaping global alliances. With growing rifts between the U.S. and Europe, ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and rising tension in Iran, global powers are shifting.
“There’s a lot of potential change, and this is an important moment in world affairs,” political science professor Yoshiko Herrera said. “In 2026, we’ll see what it brings.”
On February 24, 2026, the UW Now Live hosted experts who discussed recent changes in U.S. foreign policy and the war in Ukraine. Mike Knetter, an economist and former CEO of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association, moderated the discussion, which focused on changing global power and how the U.S. is contributing to that change.
Herrera began the evening’s conversation by discussing the war in Ukraine, as Tuesday marked four years since the Russian invasion. Herrera said that, as the war enters its fifth year, there is no resolution in sight. Although peace talks have continued, and there has been little movement on the front line, Russia has increased its use of missiles and drones.
“It’s important to know how slow moving the war has been and how Russia hasn’t been able to achieve, militarily, even the limited gains that it’s wanted to achieve,” she said.
As relationships between the U.S. and its NATO allies evolve, American defense strategy has shifted focus to homeland security, the western hemisphere, and China, and the U.S. has suggested NATO allies take the lead defending Ukraine. Herrera mentioned the Munich Security Conference as a turning point for global defense, citing a quote from German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said, “The U.S.-led, rules-based global order is over.”
“The U.S. does not hold all the cards,” Herrera said. “Europe has the ability to build up their own military capabilities, and it’s a question of whether they’re going to actually do that.”
The conversation then turned to the Middle East as political science professor Jon Pevehouse discussed how U.S. policy toward Iran is evolving under the Trump administration, with the U.S. threatening military strikes over Iran’s nuclear program.
“I think one of the major things going on is that individuals in the [Trump] administration and other Iran watchers in Washington believe that right now, the leadership of the Islamic government is at a very critical point,” he said, adding that a U.S. strike on Iran could begin a revolution with the potential to bring a new Iranian government into power. “The U.S. wants to end the Iranian regime. Frankly, we want to end the nuclear program.”
Pevehouse went on to discuss international trade and tariffs, stating that there is currently a “great power competition” between countries and that smaller, more localized spheres of power are becoming popular. However, Pevehouse said these changing ideas of where power should concentrate may not easily take.
“The globalization toothpaste is out of the tube. It’s hard to put back in,” he said. “The idea that you can retract back to a narrow set of interests that are just geographically close by — that is a time that I think has well passed for the United States.”
The guests then answered viewer questions and discussed the Middle East, China, and disinformation.
