of the think host: i'll let edward alden respond to that. up about coming up next, as we continue to spotlight the council on foreign relations, we're going to be joined by the c.f.r. senior fellow on russian studies, stephen sestanovich. we'll be talking about these specific issues, but edward alden, if you have some general thoughts. guest: no, i would encourage the caller to call back and ask steve about these issues. he's far more knowledgeable than i am. just one quick point. he talked about the stance of the c.f.r. as an institution, we don't take positions on any of these things. you know, he will offer you a range of his personal opinions on the situation in ukraine, and he has great expertise there and experience, so very valuable. but c.f.r. as an organization does not take positions on those issues. my comments about trade come from my personal expertise and research. they're not the positions of the council on foreign relations. so we don't take it. host: we'd love to hear your response on this piece that appeared yesterday in th

office is senior fellow, edward alden. first want to ask you about the mission.ow do you see a role in major foreign policy debates like the one taking place right now, what's going on in ukraine? our our role is to try to be a source of useful information to the public, to the media, to policy makers, so in an event like ukraine, we've done a variety of events. we've done press calls with our experts that yes, you're going to have on next, steve sestanovich, i always have trouble with my s's early in the morning, with the former ambassador at large for president clinton, working on the newly emerging states in eastern europe. we do meetings here at the council with members to discuss some of the key issues. we've got fellows and scholars here working on papers related to this and other major issues. the whole variety of things is think tanks tend to do to raise sandub policy make air wearness and help come up with ideas that can be useful in terms of solution. scommoip ukraine is an issue that's been talked about and debated for months. what is c.f.r.'s role whe

to talk about it, edward alden a senior fellow joins us. the u.s. ambassador to the soviet union will take your crawls about -- your calls about ukraine and u.s. russia relations. pulitzer prize winner glenn greenwald will discuss his new book on edward snowden. the book is " no place to hide." you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. host: good morning. it's wednesday, may 14 2014. the house continues to be out of session this week but the senate is in and it's set today to continue debating an $84 billion measure aimed at reviving and extending several expired business tax breaks. at the white house yesterday president obama sought to keep pressure on congressional republicans to support a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws. the president said that the next few months before congress takes its summer recess offers a narrow window to move integration reform, and this morning on the "washington journal," we're asking our viewers your thoughts on the state of