An Evening with General Ben Hodges

The Ukrainian Institute of America is honored to present

An Evening with General Ben Hodges

Keynote Address:
Envisioning Ukraine’s Way Forward in 2024
Lieutenant General (retired) Ben Hodges

Panel Discussion:
Divining the Future of the Black Sea Region

General Hodges will be joined in discussion by
Herman Pirchner, President American Foreign Policy Council, and
Alexander Motyl, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University

A light reception will follow the program.
This event is free and open to the public.
Advance registration is requested. 

Lieutenant General (Retired) Ben Hodges, the former Commanding General of US Army Europe (2014-2017), currently serves as NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics. He consults for several companies on Europe, NATO, and the European Union, and he is co-author of the book, Future War and the Defence of Europe, published by Oxford University Press.

Hodges has a regular media presence on CNN, MSNBC, Fox, BBC, Times Radio, ZDF, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg, The Daily Telegraph, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and other media.  He offers insight and analysis on NATO, US and European security, the Russian war against Ukraine, the greater Black Sea and Baltic Sea regions, the Israel-Hamas war, the upcoming US Election and its implications for transatlantic security, human rights, and other related geostrategic topics.

He was most recently Senior Advisor to Human Rights First, a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in the United States.  Prior to joining Human Rights First, he held the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

A native of Quincy, Florida, General Hodges graduated from the United States Military Academy in May 1980 and was commissioned as an Infantry Officer in the US Army.

After his first assignment as a Lieutenant in Garlstedt, Germany, he commanded Infantry units at the Company, Battalion, and Brigade levels in the 101st Airborne Division, including the First Brigade Combat Team “Bastogne” in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (2003-2004). His other operational assignments include Chief of Operations for Multi-National Corps-Iraq in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (2005-2006) and Director of Operations, Regional Command South in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2009-2010).

General Hodges has also served in a variety of Joint and Army Staff positions, including Chief of Plans for the 2nd Infantry Division in the Republic of Korea, Director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Coordination Cell on the Joint Staff, and Chief of Army Congressional Liaison. From 2012-2014 he served as Commander, NATO Allied Land Command in İzmir, Turkey. His last military assignment was as Commanding General, United States Army Europe in Wiesbaden, Germany from 2014 to 2017.

He retired from the U.S. Army in January 2018 and lives today with his wife in Frankfurt, Germany.

Alexander Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers-Newark. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR, and on nationalism, revolutions, empires, and theory, Dr. Motyl is the author of 10 books of nonfiction, including Pidsumky imperii (2009); Puti imperii (2004); Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires (2001); Revolutions, Nations, Empires: Conceptual Limits and Theoretical Possibilities (1999); Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism (1993); and The Turn to the Right: The Ideological Origins and Development of Ukrainian Nationalism, 1919–1929 (1980); the editor of 15 volumes, including The Encyclopedia of Nationalism (2000)and The Holodomor Reader (2012); and a contributor of dozens of articles to academic and policy journals, newspaper op-ed pages, and magazines. He also has a weekly blog, “Ukraine’s Orange Blues.”

Herman Pirchner, in 1982, became the founding President of the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), a non-profit public policy organization headquartered in Washington, DC. Under his leadership, AFPC has hosted the Washington visits of hundreds of foreign officials, ranging from the Prime Minister of Malta to the Prime Minister of Russia; conducted hundreds of briefings for members of Congress and their staffs; and organized dozens of fact-finding missions abroad for current and former senior American officials. AFPC’s publication program includes the sponsorship of numerous articles, monographs and books; in recent years, AFPC authors have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal among other prominent newspapers and magazines.