PROFESSOR LARRY CATÁ BACKER INTERVIEWED FOR TABNAK NEWS SERVICE (IRAN)
April 2025 — Penn State Dickinson Law Professor Larry Catá Backer was delighted to have been able to sit for an online interview with Payman Yazdani for the Tabnak News Service (Iran). The interview revolved around five questions:
- Zelenskyy visit to White House was very controversial. Regardless of this fact, it seems that Europe has lost its strategic importance for the U.S. What do you think of this?
- Recent U.S. approach towards Europe indicates that Washington is siding with Russia in face of the EU, because in the new world order based on Great Power Competitions the Russia and the China cooperation is more important for the U.S. and the U.S. is trying to weaken the two countries cooperation by increasing its engagement with Moscow. What is your assessment?
- Will Russia accept the European peacekeepers presence in Ukraine in case of reaching a peace agreement?
- It seems that now even NATO has to maintain its missions based on U.S. interests like opening its office in Japan. Do you think that NATO has to maintain its missions in line with U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy?
- Generally, which parts of Europe are still important for the U.S.?
Professor Backer noted that, “the answers required one to try to consider the emerging U.S. position from the inside, its challenges (from the perspective of that vision and from an outside perspective), and to tease out its logic and potential consequences. Of course it is impossible to get into the mind of another, but it is perfectly fair to try to understand that other from the evidence of thoughts and premises that are evidenced by their own statements, performances, and actions. The answers left judgment about whether all of this is good, bad or otherwise to the reader. Nonetheless, for all of us, the challenge is to pull together the vision behind the actions, performances, and text. That will likely have to wait until, by an accumulation of these actions, text, etc. what will be the articulation of that vision emerges. My friend, Graeme Johnston, noted the parallels to the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, the consequences of which lasted well over a century. And, indeed, perhaps, that is the historical shadow the insights one can extract from which might be useful as human collectives move forward along paths that are only now becoming slightly more clear.”
The text of Professor Backer's interview may be accessed online at https://www.tabnak.ir/en/news/6089/us-interests-shift-makes-changes-to-nato-structure-and-goals-necessary or at https://lcbackerblog.blogspot.com/2025/03/text-of-interview-with-payman-yazdani.html
Professor Larry Catá Backer is W. Richard and Mary Eshelman Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law and International Affairs at Penn State Dickinson Law. Professor Backer focuses his research on governance-related issues of globalization and the constitutional theories of public and private governance, with an emphasis on semiotics.