First hand observations of the final years of the Soviet Union in eastern Europe featured in latest ARNSF
The CGSC Foundation’s Simons Center hosted an Arter-Rowland National Security Forum luncheon event on Jan. 16, 2025, at the at the Carriage Club in Kansas City. The event featured a presentation on U.S. missions to Eastern Europe during the final years of Soviet occupation by retired Colonel Bob Ulin, a former U.S. Army foreign area officer and the leader of the Forum.
Before Ulin welcomed the ARNSF members and their guests, CGSC Foundation President/CEO Lora Morgan made an announcement.

(Top photo and above) Col. (Ret.) Bob Ulin, Founding CEO Emeritus of the CGSC Foundation, provides a presentation on his visits to Eastern Europe in the final days of Soviet Union control during the Arter-Rowland National Security Forum luncheon event on Jan. 16, 2025, at the Carriage Club in Kansas City.
“The CGSC Foundation executive committee met in December and I’m happy to announce that during that meeting we unanimously voted Bob Ulin as Founding CEO Emeritus,” Morgan said. “We’ll make a formal presentation to Bob during our next board of trustees meeting.”
Morgan said Ulin had finally officially retired, but will remain an active volunteer for the Foundation as the coordinator and leader of the ARNSF. Ulin thanked Morgan and the members for their recognition.
After lunch, former deputy director, now director, of the Simons Center, John Nelson introduced Ulin as the speaker for the meeting.
In his presentation, Ulin described how the mid to late 1990s in Europe were a time of tension that almost led to nuclear war, a time of the “color revolutions” in Eastern Europe that led to the eventual disintegration of the Soviet Union, and a time when our Western allies began questioning the utility of the North Atlantic Alliance. Ulin, a former U.S. Army foreign area officer, provided his firsthand experiences of traveling through and speaking with high-level officials in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and (Eastern) Germany during the final years of occupation by the Soviet Union while he was a member of the faculty of the U.S. Army War College. He traveled to the region in June 1990 and again, after Germany reunified, in November 1991. The Soviet Union ultimately dissolved in December 1991.
During his 1991 trip to a former East German Army division in Eggesin, Germany, Ulin said he was shocked by the dire conditions the soldiers had to endure, and how poorly they had been treated and regarded by their former East German leaders. Prior to his visit, Ulin said the division had been redesigned as the 41st Home Defense Brigade Western Pomerania. The brigade commander, German Brig. Gen. Hans-Peter von Kirchbach, a 1989 graduate of the U.S. Army War College, had invited Ulin to visit his unit to see the challenges he faced in stripping away the East German/Soviet ways and converting them into a functioning western Army brigade.
Ulin said the German Army had undertaken a very challenging transformation to bring former East German Army soldiers into the German Army. He said there had been a tremendous effort to socialize them. About 75% who requested to join the German Army were accepted for a 2-year enlistment, while others received civilian job training. Now, a generation later, the German nation and Army are one and German officers and NCOs routinely attend U.S. military schools.
After the presentation and a question and answer period, Ulin provided a preview of future ARNSF gatherings.
For more photos see the CGSC Foundation Flickr album
Retired Colonel Bob Ulin spent 17 1/2 years in Europe out of his 33-year Army career. The last 10 years of his Army service was spent as a European foreign area officer serving at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the American Embassies in Belgium and Luxembourg, on NATO The Military Committee in Brussels, and finally as the director of International and European Studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
The Arter-Rowland National Security Forum (ARNSF) is led by the CGSC Foundation’s Simons Center and is an exclusive professional information sharing and networking forum for those interested in keeping abreast of relevant information about national security issues.
Members of the Forum and their guests meet periodically at guest speaker events in downtown Kansas City. National and regional guest speakers representing all elements of national power (Diplomatic, Informational, Military and Economic) highlight the meetings. The Forum is nonpartisan, but elected government officials may present from time to time.
The Forum is named after Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Robert Arter, Founding Chairman of the CGSC Foundation, and Mr. Landon Rowland, the Foundation’s first major donor who was well-known in Kansas City for his keen interest in national security issues and his leadership in business and philanthropy.
ARNSF events are only open to ARNSF members and their guests. If you are not a member but are interested in joining, contact Bob Ulin at rulin@cgscf.org or visit the Forum page on the Simons Center website for more information.
The Arter-Rowland National Security Forum is an exclusive professional information sharing
and networking forum exclusively for select invitees of the CGSC Foundation and its Simons Center.
Thank You to the 2025 ARNSF Sponsor – ECCO Select

Posted: January 17, 2025 by Simons Center
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