There may not be one person in Washington or in the U.S. foreign policy establishment who wants to try to understand Russia’s point of view. From Ray McGovern at antiwar.com:
University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer, widely respected “dean” of the realism school (aka, “offensive realism”) of international relations, has put the conflict in Ukraine in a context that everyone can understand – and needs to understand before it is too late.
Speaking at an April 7 webinar, Mearsheimer was, true to form, “offensively realistic”. He explained: (1) the root cause lies in the April 2008 NATO summit Declaration that Ukraine (and Georgia) “will become members of NATO”; and (2) that Russia sees this as an “existential threat” and therefore “must win” this one.