Former U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski ’87 returned to Dartmouth this week to meet with students and faculty and give an insider’s account on diplomacy in Europe as war intensified in Ukraine.
During a 90-minute talk Tuesday at the Haldeman Center, Brzezinski reflected on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Poland’s humane response, the evolution of U.S. and NATO strategy, and what shifting global politics may mean for Europe. More than 60 people attended the event, which was co-sponsored by the Davidson Institute for Global Security, the Dickey Center for International Understanding, and the Institute of Arctic Studies, and about 70 watched the livestream.
Brzezinski, who served in Warsaw from 2021 to 2025 in the Biden administration, said the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 were marked by fear and uncertainty among Polish leaders.
“The Poles were absolutely apocalyptic,” he said, recalling conversations in which officials expected Russian forces to overrun Ukraine quickly and feared Poland would be next.
Officials in both the U.S. and Poland initially underestimated Ukraine’s capacity to resist, he said, noting that Ukrainian forces “showed that they know what they’re doing,” drawing on a long history of defending against invaders.
In response, Brzezinski said his first priorities as ambassador were deterrence and reassurance. He pushed for a visible U.S. military presence in Poland—not only at major bases but dispersed across smaller towns—to send a clear message to Moscow that any escalation risking American lives would fundamentally change the conflict.
At the same time, he focused on calming public anxiety, regularly appearing on Polish television and speaking in Polish, which he learned while living there as a Fulbright scholar after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
“People need to know that they are safe and secure, and they need to hear that from a position of authority,” he said of his approach.
Brzezinski emphasized Poland’s central role in supporting Ukraine throughout the war, noting that roughly 90% of all lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine flowed through Poland’s eight border crossings. The country also absorbed an extraordinary humanitarian burden: about 9 million Ukrainians crossed into Poland, with roughly 2 million remaining.
He recalled seeing a sign at a rail station near the Ukrainian border that captured the national response, a few simple words that greeted refugees as they arrived: “Here, you are safe.”
He also recounted President Joe Biden asking him why the Poles were so supportive of the Ukrainian people.
“And the only thing I could say to him was, ‘Mr. President, for the Poles, this is 1939, except this is a time they could do something about it,’” unlike the onset of World War II. “They provided an incredible humanitarian response.”
While his earlier service as ambassador to Sweden during the Obama administration had been professionally significant, Brzezinski said his role in Warsaw was meaningful on a different level.
“To go to Poland with a ‘ski’ at the end of your last name, with parents cast on America’s shores from Central Europe by World War II, that was personal,” said Brzezinski, whose father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was national security adviser during the Carter administration. “And to go back as chief of mission at such a critical time was truly a dream come true.”
Turning to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brzezinski expressed deep skepticism about the prospects for a negotiated settlement to the war with Ukraine.
Brzezinski described Putin as shaped by a worldview rooted in the collapse of the Soviet Union, which Putin has called the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. From that perspective, Brzezinski said, reclaiming influence over former Soviet territory remains central to Putin’s ambitions.
“I don’t think Putin is serious today in terms of the negotiations,” he said. The Russian leader believes time is on his side and that meaningful talks will require significantly more leverage and pressure, he added.
Brzezinski also reflected on how President Donald Trump, in his second term, could reshape transatlantic dynamics. He said he briefed the Trump transition team following the election, outlining what had worked in Poland and where U.S. interests lie, particularly in the eventual rebuilding of Ukraine—a task he described as a “trillion-dollar” undertaking once the war ends.
While he contrasted the Biden administration’s emphasis on broader social and institutional rebuilding with what he characterized as a more business-oriented approach under Trump, Brzezinski suggested that sustained U.S. engagement remains critical, whether diplomatic, military, or commercial.
If U.S. influence in Ukraine is maintained through commercial or investment interests, “at least we have that,” he said.
He also praised the Trump administration’s efforts to end the war, negotiating with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Kudos to President Trump for doing more in the last four months to bring Putin and Zelenskyy together than President Biden did in the last four years. It’s just true,” he said.
To a question about renewed U.S. interest in taking control of Greenland, Brzezinski said Nordic leaders have been deeply unsettled, even “appalled,” by the rhetoric. He described the Nordic countries as among America’s most generous and reliable allies and warned that pursuing Greenland risks undermining long-standing partnerships.
“I don’t think it makes economic sense,” he said. “And I think since World War II, what we’ve learned is a collective response is the most effective response.”
Throughout the talk, Brzezinski returned to a central theme: alliances matter most in moments of crisis. From Ukraine to the Arctic, where he led President Barack Obama’s engagement efforts, he argued that shared challenges, including security, energy, and humanitarian responses, are best met collectively.
For him, Poland’s transformation from a country anxious about its own survival to a cornerstone of NATO’s eastern flank stands as evidence that diplomacy, when paired with credibility and trust, can reshape history.
After the speech, Max Hubbard ’29, a first-year student from Newton, Mass., said he was interested to hear about “how functional” the U.S. relationship was with Poland and how starkly Brzezinski characterized Putin in looking to exploit weaknesses in Europe and rejuvenate the Soviet bloc.
“I think it was a pretty bleak picture of the Russian government,” Hubbard said. “It was interesting to hear he did not characterize the people as such, and there are people who want to engage with the Western world.”
“But if that really is what Putin is like and what the Russian government intends to do in central and eastern Europe, I believe there’s a reason for all of our activity, all of our aid to Ukraine, and it’s pretty justified.”
Brzezinski’s three-day campus visit as the Class of 1950 Senior Foreign Affairs Fellow also included breakfast with Postdoctoral Fellows in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security; a lunch discussion with War and Peace Fellows; a meeting with the Center for Business, Government & Society Fellows at Tuck; and breakfast with undergraduate Great Issues Scholars and Arctic Innovation Scholars.
A Montgomery Fellow in 2015, Brzezinski appeared to relish being back on campus, even posting photographs on Instagram from when his mother dropped him off in front of Topliff as a first-year student in 1983 and his graduation four years later.
