Yesterday AKWorld and The Humanity Funds co-sponsored a screening of Lina, The Film and hosted a conversation featuring retired Ambassador L. Craig Johnstone. The program began with a screening of the film Lina, which tells the story of Lina and her family’s escape from occupied Ukraine, through Russia, and back to Ukraine, only to find that area under attack a few months later. The film, produced by The Humanity Funds, focuses on Lina’s mother’s experience – feeling the stress of protecting her small children, grieving the loss of leaving their home and farmlands, and the pressures of not knowing what comes next for their large family.
Following the film, Ambassador Johnstone spoke with AKWorld Board Chair Samantha Correia about the film, his career, and the challenges facing the world. Ambassador Johnstone repeatedly expressed the need for America to again take the moral high ground and use American exceptionalism to do what we’ve done in the past to bring leadership to the world stage. Without leadership on a global scale, he argues, there are a lot of challenges facing humanity as a whole. Conflict is creating humanitarian crises. Climate change is driving increasingly devastating disasters. And advances in artificial intelligence and genetic technology are raising profound questions about how—and by whom—these technologies should be governed.
He emphasized that meeting these challenges will require more than government action. It will require an informed electorate and citizens willing to think beyond themselves and consider what is good for America as a whole. Strong alliances, international agreements, open communication, and a clear moral compass, he argued, aren’t abstract foreign-policy ideals. They deliver tangible benefits to Americans. These principles helped the United States navigate and ultimately win the Cold War; abandoning them, he warned, puts America’s future at risk.
The conversation returned to the devastating human cost of the war in Ukraine. Ambassador Johnstone spoke about the nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children who have essentially been kidnapped and taken to Russia for adoption or conscription into the Russian army. The Humanity Fund and Save Ukraine are working to locate these children and reunite them with their families. He shared some success stories, but also some heartbreaking ones.
The evening offered no easy answers—and no attempt to soften the brutality of war. But it did offer something equally important: a reminder that leadership matters, that informed citizens matter, and that people willing to do difficult work can make a difference.
AKWorld is grateful to The Humanity Fund, the Anchorage Museum, Ambassador Johnstone, Samantha Correia, and everyone who joined us for an important conversation about Ukraine, America, and our shared future.
About the Speaker
