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host: philip breedlove served as the supreme allied commander of nato from 2013-2016. he is currently with the middle east institute as their distinguished chair of their frontier europe initiative and he will talk about the increasing tensions between ukraine and russia. general breedlove, welcome to "washington journal." guest: thanks for having me. host: what does it mean to be the supreme allied commander? what does that role until militarily and politically? guest: militarily, you are a tentatively the commander of those nato forces that are operational, those that have been called to duty or those that are on day to day standing duty on land on air with our units in europe but there are other commanders between you and the front-line troops so you are providing guidance, policy etc. as to how to carry the mission of nato in those -- and those military forces that are activated. it's more a representative of the military and for the military to the north atlantic council. when we need to do something militarily in nato, the decision to do it, to provide for it is