one of the great ironies is this, i do not know if you have studied the long-term history of eurasia, but what's the best way to get at this? who are the bad as people in -- who are the baddest people in history? [indiscernible] i think they are a contender. when you get to the 20th century, there's a lot of competition. the monguls, genghis khan, you can argue he's the baddest dude in history. you could argue of attila and the huns are the baddest. what characterizes these classic baddies? i'm just suggesting. if you took a poll. i think they are pumped about this in mongolia. anyways, what characterizes them? >> [indiscernible] >> absolutely. one of the great continuities of eurasian history is you have these guys who live on the steepes of eurasia. they get horses and that enables them to be these formidable mounted people. they don't have guns, but they have compound bows. which are these weapons. they will have 12 horses at a time. you see these alternations and eurasian history between the power of the steepe nomads, and the settled people who always have to deal with this. any

he is the president and founder of the global political risk and research group, eurasia group. in his 2015 report, he writes russia continues its aggression in ukraine despite sliding into a depression. the u.s. is considering providing defensive weapons to kiev. europe is at a tipping point with an election in greece that rejected austerity. president obama returned from his historic trip to india and saudi arabia. i am pleased to have ian bremmer. tipping point may be too strong of a word, but we will come back to that. saudi arabia? you get a sense that this administration now believes it needs to strengthen the relationship. >> the u.s.-saudi relationship was not on life-support but certainly had a downward trajectory over the last couple of years. the saudis were more than happy to let us know that publicly. i think it was a good move for obama to cut short the cultural portion -- >> the taj mahal. >> and show up in riyadh. he hasn't made the best decisions on foreign trips recently. this was the right one. everyone is second-guessing him. >> paris. >> he should have sent

of the great continuities of your race in history is you have these guys who live on the steps of eurasia. they get horses and that enables them to be these formidable mounted people. they don't have guns, but they have compound bows. they will have 12 horses at a time. you see these alternations and eurasian history between the power and the step nomads, and the settled people who always have to deal with this. any idea when the step nomads are done as a feature of eurasian history? when they're no longer a threat? go ahead. >> [indiscernible] >> even earlier, actually, the 18th century. china launches an expansion to the west. they basically destroyed the major step, nomad empires. the point i want to get across is this feature of you raise in the 1700s. china is not worried about the step nomads after the 1800s. if you look at this in the broadest perspective, it is exactly the moment that a certain kind of lifestyle, certain military technology or tactics, exactly the moment when it's over finished, antiquated in eurasia. it suddenly appears on the plains of north america. it is a bal

joining me, ian bremmer of eurasia group.ford i know you did a study of korea. we have seen the president look across that zone. how do you envision a buffer to be in ukraine? >> it will be more like a dmv. a lot of tanks moving around from the russians and ukrainians. disagreements has all b foreign military needs to be removed. the russians have consistently said they have no weapons they have sent to ukraine. we should see some sort of lull in the fighting the idea this is going to be firmly implemented xgrid you woody at this point. >> where is the russian border this morning? >> it is moving. around this small town they have more or less surrounded. they are down to the port town within shelling distance, a bit of a jog. that would be an important port facility. you will continue to see some fighting over the next couple of days. whether or not we end up in a full cease-fire is a question. part of this agreement is that by the end of 2015, you will have monitors on the border. mr. lavrov said he did not believe this was

he is the director of the russian eurasia program at carnegie. he is a former national intelligence officer for russia and eurasia. thanks for joining us. before we get started, i wanted to see a show of hands in this room if you believe that arming the ukrainian military, making that decision as the united states, is a good idea. raise your hand. a little less than half. >> a lot less. [laughter] >> we've got some work to do. >> good luck. we are going to start with each side talking for about five minutes and making the case. after those 10 minutes, we will open it up to a 20 minute discussion up here. i will ask some questions. i hope you will address each other. after that for 10 minutes, we will open the floor to your questions. my only request is that it is actual questions and not lectures from the audience. then we will have about 10 minutes to hear both sides wrap up. i would love to see where the audience stands at that point if you have been able to convince the room. why don't i begin with the two former ambassadors to make a case for

in order to do so he has pursued the policy of creating a eurasia. in the sparked this because ukraine dfrnts want to be a part of the customs union. there are various sorts of imperial discussions within russia. >> has been unleashed, but the idea that somehow russia is in a position today to recreate the soviet union, he wants to inex tent tend his influence but recreate the soviet union as a country, that has so far not been on putin -- that has not been an objectsive of putin. host: roger green has this follow us at c-spanwj. they had the ability to join the eu host: in order to join nato you would have to get the agreement of the means and clearly the people have never believed that ukraine was in a position. it didn't want to ant agonize russia by louing ukraine to join. i don't think ukraine has missed an opportunity to join nato. the opportunity has gone off of the table because of the going crisis. >> from riverside california marlene is next. good morning. call caller can you hear me host: sure can t go ahead. caller: ever since this began,

in order to do so, he has pursued the policy of creating a eurasia customs union. this sparked this, because ukraine didn't want to be a part of the customs union. there are various imperial discussions with in russia that have been unleashed, but the idea that russia is in a position today to re-create the soviet union, that would create a huge investment that so far putin has not been willing to make. he wants to extend his influence, but to re-create the soviet union as a country, that has not been on putin's -- not has been one of his objections. roger green -- >> host: roger green has this follow up at c-spanwj. they had the ability to join the eu. in order to join nato, you would have to get the agreement of the means, and, -- europeans, and clearly, the europeans have never believed that ukraine was in a position to join nato. it didn't want to antagonize russia at that point by allowing ukraine to join. i don't think ukraine has necessarily missed an opportunity to join nato. in fact, nato today, the opportunity has quite frankly gone off the table because

he is russia's analyst at the eurasia group. you spent your career talking about vladimir putin.nderstand what she is looking during this process. >> i think the recent flurry of diplomacy is -- of diplomacy is the last chance for a diplomatic solution to this crisis. i still think it is not a very good chance. any deal received later this week will be based on the existing minsk protocols, which have been disregarded for several months now. the agreement that was reached in minsk and september -- minsk in september. basic objective of the sites are not being met by disagreement. ukraine wants to align more closely with the eu and nato. of course the separatists don't want to recognize the government to either it is made and doesn't stick or it doesn't stick at all. >> what role does oil play in all of this? if oil declines to $20 per barrel, there is already a lot of pain being felt in russia with oil at $30 per barrel. is there economy in shambles and does that have an effect on his ambitions in ukraine? >> the russian economy is certainly in bad shape. it was even before the t

in that respect, this is a major threat to the peace of europe, to the piece of eurasia, and therefore, a threat to the interest of the united states and i would say a threat to the chances of a peaceful 21st century. >> that is former deputy secretary of state strobe talbott, now president of brookings. your response? >> he is much more than that. people need to drop their masks and say with a personal stake in this is. strobe talbott, whom i have known for years, was the architect of the american policy that led to this crisis. he was the russia hand, under president clinton, when the expansion of nato toward russia began. understand what he said, and the role out of this report has been coming. if you look at the signatures of these are the leaders of the american war party, the people who literally what a military showdown with russia. stop and think what that means. stop and think what that means as if rush is going to back off. the people who sign this report and they've been bringing it out for days, are saying he literally just said the future of the 21st century is at stake in

eurasia, europe, latin america all posting declines. it gets so much of its sales from overseas. the company says the strong dollar will hurt revenue by about five points. we have single the cola that's coca-cola lack behind pepsico. -- seen coca-cola lag behind pepsico. >> thank you so much. our critical player inside the federal reserve says he is not yet ready to raise interest rates that ready to take on the push to congress to audit the fed. it has been a six-year push and longer. he spoke exclusively to peter cook. peter is here with more from the interview. he says he does not want to raise rates. >> he is not ready to pull the trigger just yet. fed presidents talk all the time, but not the governors. this is the first interview he has done since he joined the fed. he is not confident yet that inflation is moving back towards their 2% target. he says it is getting there and is closer but not yet has the confident -- he told me it was a great job supporter. he still sees some slack. >> it does feel very much like there is plenty of slack left out there in the economy. you h

those of the words of the eurasia group. oil price volatility the new norm. anna: yum!er of the ps -- kfc and pizza hut chains reported numbers that the estimates. and athe company made a net loss of 86 million dollars compared to a profit of $321 million a year earlier. yum! brands has been struggling to repair its reputation after one of its vendors was probed for using allegedly out of date meet. the trans-asian fight that crashed in taipei made a discretion call -- a distress call. on average according, a male voice was heard saying made a, engine flameout. 31 people work killed while 15 of the 58 people aboard the aircraft survived. toyota has struck a deal with google to make its 140 character update more searchable. tweets will start to be visible in search results as soon as they are posted. thanks for twitter giving the search giant direct access to it systems. this underscores the progress that they ceo is making in getting tweets seen by more nonusers and generating more advertising revenues from a larger audience. manus: reacting to the news that the adjudic

now, the director of eurasia center at the atlantic council.ur phone lines are open and we are dividing lines between democrats, republicans and independents. (202) 748-8000 four republicans. (202) 748-8001 for democrats. those of you listening on c-span radio, which is heard on at some 20. if we provide weapons to these rebels, what does that do to u.s./russia relations? guest: the proposal, which i support, is to provide arms to ukraine's dormant. russia is conducting a hybrid war in ukraine. russian sergeants at -- russian soldiers have fought. ukraine needs weapons to prevent further russian aggression in ukraine. we are not talking about sending weapons that are currently under the kremlin's control. the recently supply weapons is this, ukrainian people asking for them. they are the victims of this aggression. mr. putin has a vulnerability. the russian people do not approve of russian soldiers fighting in ukraine. he tells his people russia is not fighting in ukraine, but he is lying. polls have shown that the russian people do not want ru

defense or world-class unrivaled training platforms for rapid deployment in the asia pacific and to eurasia. you'll be hearing me talk about that and i'm sure that my colleagues will as well. and i think that the large number of army and air force bases and personnel in alaska is a testament to an important situation. general welsh you mentioned the importance, and that alaska is probably the pamir airspace training in the world larger than several american states. in general, general odierno i know that you are heading to alaska as soon, wanted to let you know that there was an article today in the alaska dispatch that mention how the army is looking to illuminate 120,000 positions, looking at potentially 30 installations including combat brigades possibly from poor rich or in alaska obviously this is having big concerns in my state. is sequestration driving this focus in the army to look at these installations including brigades in alaska? is that something that is being driven by sequestration? >> yes, it is being driven directly by sequestration and the fact that we will have to reduce

world-class unrivaled training areas and ranges platform for rapid deployment into the asia-pacific and eurasia. you'll be hearing me talk about that a little bit in some of our hearings. i'm sure my colleagues will as well. but the large number of army and air force bases and personnel in alaska i think is a testament to the important geostrategic location and general well as you mentioned the importance of training. alaska is probably the premier air sprays for air force training in the world larger than several american states. general odierno, i know you are heading up to alaska soon. sir, we are looking forward to that i wanted to let you know there's an article today and in the alaska dispatch that mentioned how the army is looking to eliminate 120,000 positions looking at potentially 30 installations that could be impacted. including a couple of combat brigades possibly from fort rich or fort wainwright and obviously this is having the concerns of my stay. is sequestration driving this focus in the army to look at 30 different installations including brigades in alaska? is that something