The Strauss Center and Clements Center will welcome Colonel Liam Collins, Director of the Modern War Institute at West Point. Colonel Collins will discuss US Russian hybrid war in Ukraine, US policy and ways to counter Russian aggression.  Colonel Collins has conducted multiple visits to Ukraine as the executive officer for General (ret.) John Abizaid in his Secretary of Defense Role as the Senior Defense advisor to Ukraine. He planned and executed dozens of meetings with senior Ukraine officials including their President, Minister of Defense and Chief of Defense to help reform Ukraine's defense establishment to produce a more capable force that meets western norms and NATO standards. In the US, he planned and executed dozens of meetings with DoS, DoD, NSC, and HASC officials to include Secretary Mattis and National Security Advisor McMaster to inform and shape U.S. policy.

Biography

Colonel Liam Collins is a career Special Forces officer, who has served in a variety of special operations assignments and conducted multiple combat operations to Afghanistan and Iraq as well as operational deployments to Bosnia, Africa, and South America. He has graduated from several military courses including Ranger School and has earned numerous military awards and decorations including two valorous awards for his actions in combat. Prior to assuming his current position as the Director of the Modern War Institute at West Point, Colonel Collins served as the director of West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center. He has taught courses in Military Innovation, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, Comparative Defense Politics, Research Methods in Strategic Studies, Homeland Security and Defense, Terrorism and Counterterrorism, Internal Conflict, International Relations, American Politics, and Officership.  He has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy and a Master in Public Affairs and Ph.D. from Princeton University.