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I try to call “balls and strikes” with Ukraine. I am not a fan of our approach to it, and I still hope somehow there can be a negotiated settlement that forever puts the issue to bed. Yeah, Russia could lose this round, but how do you know they won’t keep trying every 5-10 years with a different leader. This is one area I do think Trump would have made a dramatic difference, in that I would think his focus would be on getting a settlement that works in the long term.

I actually don't think it's possible to come up with a long-term settlement that lasts based solely on mutual agreement. After all, there was mutual agreement in both 1991 and 1994 that Ukraine was independent, and with its own legal borders. Russia was perfectly fine with it then, and even congratulated Ukraine in its independence.

But then Russia got a different leader who decided that all of Ukraine is really Russia. How do we prevent another Russian leader coming down the like in 20 years and rejecting whatever deal is negotiated now?

I think that for any deal to truly lead to permanent peace, it has to be backed by security guarantees, end eventually NATO membership.