If you're confused about the aims, conduct and outcome of the summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025, you're probably not alone. As summits go, the meeting broke with many conventions of diplomacy: It was last-minute, it appeared to ignore longstanding protocol and accounts of what happened were conflicting in the days after the early termination of the event. The Conversation U.S.'s politics editor Naomi Schalit interviewed Donald Heflin, a veteran diplomat now teaching at Tufts University's Fletcher School, to help untangle what happened and what could happen next. First, the two parties, Russia and Ukraine, weren't asking to come to the peace table. Neither one of them is ready yet, apparently. Second, the process was flawed. It wasn't prepared well enough in advance, at the secretary of state and foreign minister level. It wasn't prepared at the staff level. What was a bit of a surprise...
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