WAR AND THE DECEPTIVE ARROGANCE OF GREAT POWERS

EVN REPORT, 2022

This article explores the historical framing of Russia’s recent war of conquest against Ukraine, arguing that the Great War and the International Peace Movement of the 19th and 20th centuries offer starting points for a usable past to understand the conflict and to place it in context. I also make connections to the creation of the Armenian Republic and the Irish Republic in this period. In a global scramble for meaning media commentators, thinktank pundits, and scholars have pointed to World War II, the founding of NATO in 1945, and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 to make sense of the current crisis in Ukraine and to establish the historical logic of cause and effect. While these reference points are appropriate, much less commentary has been focused on the Great War of 1914-1918. It is precisely this period, I argue in this essay, that offers the most profound historical resonances with Putin’s latest unprovoked war of conquest against a sovereign neighbor and allows us to shift the focus of discussion from military strategy and power politics—winning and losing--to the whispered ambitions of liberal internationalism and peace activism. https://evnreport.com/politics/waking-up-to-history-putins-war-and-the-historical-precedent-of-wwi/

https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/andreas-umland/securing-peace-instead-of-rewarding-expansion On December 5, 2014, 60 prominent German personalities from politics, business, and the cultural sphere published a joint appeal titled " Another War in Europe? Not in Our Name! " [http://www.zeit.de/politik/2014-12/aufruf-russland-dialog] Although this open letter deals with Germany's policies towards Russia and Ukraine, only a few of the signees are currently involved in East European studies, or in journalistic reporting about Ukraine. On the contrary, most of those who signed the appeal have only limited expertise in the post-Soviet space, little relevant research experience, and apparently no deep knowledge of Ukraine or recent events there. This is no coincidence. The overwhelming majority of German researchers, activists, and reporters who, from a scholarly, civic or journalistic perspective, are observing the current conflict in Ukraine are united in th...

Ukraina moderna, vol. 35, 2023

Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine is а fundamental historical turning point. This paper argues that the current Russo-Ukrainian war prompts us to ask with new urgency what significance should Ье attached to the legacies of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and to their mass crimes in twentieth-century Europe. Vladimir Putin's aim in launching the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 was the restoration of Russian state rule or hegemony over former Soviet territories. Moreover, Putin wants to claim for Russia а role in international relations similar to the one that was held Ьу the Soviet Union following World War ІІ. The current war against Ukraine-the largest war in Europe since World War II-resulted not from а lack of critical engagement with the Nazi regime and/or with collaboration with it but from а lack of substantial critical reckoning in Russia with the legacy of mass crimes of the Stalinist era and with the history of the Soviet Union in general. Russia has used the memory of the "Great Patriotic War" to avoid such а critical reckoning. Indeed, this memory has been used to legitimize its imperialistic claims and to justify acts of aggression against its neighbours-in effect, it has been used to prepare for а new war. This development has been largely overlooked in Germany as well as in other Western countries. The fact that the international public did not demand а substantial critical re-evaluation of Soviet history and Soviet mass crimes contributed to а situation where such а reckoning failed to materialize in Russia. This paper argues that the current Russo-Ukrainian war will have а powerful impact on the prevailing view of twentieth-century history in Germany and other Western countries and that it will result in а stronger integration into the Western mindset of Eastern European experience with not one but two major murderous, genocidal regimes in twentieth-century Europe-Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union.

Studies in East European Thought

Centre for Britain in Europe Blog, 2022

It is hard to overstate the potential significance of the change initiated by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in German foreign and defence policy on 27 February. Only a few weeks before, Berlin was being pilloried for dragging its feet in responding to the threat posed by President Putin’s massive build up of military might along the Russian and Belarussian borders with Ukraine – and ridiculed for its commitment to send 5,000 helmets to Ukraine in response. In a speech to a special session of the Bundestag, however, Scholz overturned decades of political consensus in Germany, declaring that by invading Ukraine three days previously, Putin had “created a new reality. This new reality requires an unequivocal response.” The response has not just been unequivocal: it represents a genuinely revolutionary moment for German foreign policy.

Academia.edu, 2022

See the above BOOKS. Here, TEXT REMOVED (because of possible freedoms restrictions in Europe) (An earlier version was published in 2018 as chapter 8 in the book "Justice First") Should Ukraine and Russian governments accept or not to negotiate right now and right there where they stand, is not a matter of freedom of choice, free will, democracy, self-determination, liberty, or universal rights of any kind; this is not any question from the moral sphere, neither the question of any human values or any theoretical ethical question.. This is something absolutely simple, down to earth question: This is simply the matter of war and peace not in Ukraine but in the world. Whether some state will choose to terrorize and murder some population, whether a state can promote Nazi movements and the Nazi military forces, and whether some nations should be permitted to adhere and submit to some aggressive military alliance like NATO (responsible for hundreds of wars in the last 60 years) – is not a matter of ”a free democratic choice” but a geopolitical choice that concerns the entire world and particularly the neighbouring countries. This is THE question of existence and should be treated as such. So particularly the Ukrainian government should immediately accept negotiations, renounce the above-mentioned aspirations and wait to see what are not Ukrainian but general interests in this part of the world. The decisions are now to be taken not by Ukraine but by the world. The issue must be transferred to the highest international level. *** Ob die Regierungen der Ukraine und Russlands akzeptieren oder nicht, jetzt und dort, wo sie stehen, zu verhandeln, ist keine Frage der Wahlfreiheit, des freien Willens, der Demokratie, der Selbstbestimmung, der Freiheit oder der universellen Rechte jeglicher Art; das ist keine Frage aus dem moralischen Bereich, weder die Frage nach irgendwelchen menschlichen Werten noch irgendeine theoretische ethische Frage. Das ist eine ganz einfache, nüchterne Frage: Es geht einfach um (nuklearen?) Krieg und Frieden, nicht in der Ukraine, sondern in dere Welt. Ob sich ein Staat dafür entscheidet, eine Bevölkerung zu terrorisieren und zu ermorden, ob ein Staat Nazi-Bewegungen und die Nazi-Streitkräfte fördern kann und ob es einigen Nationen erlaubt sein sollte, einem aggressiven Militärbündnis wie der NATO (verantwortlich für Hunderte von Kriegen in den USA der letzten 60 Jahre) beizutreten und sich ihnen zu unterwerfen – handelt es sich nicht um „eine freie demokratische Entscheidung“, sondern um eine geopolitische Entscheidung, die die ganze Welt und insbesondere die Nachbarländer betrifft. Das ist DIE Existenzfrage und sollte auch so behandelt werden. Daher sollte insbesondere die ukrainische Regierung sofort Verhandlungen aufnehmen, auf die oben genannten Bestrebungen verzichten und abwarten, was nicht ukrainische, sondern allgemeine Interessen in diesem Teil der Welt sind. Die Entscheidungen sollen jetzt nicht von der Ukraine, sondern von der Welt getroffen werden. Das Thema muss auf die höchste internationale Ebene übertragen werden. *** The present version makes reference to the war in Ukraine and I have been amending it frequently. My rejection of the war as the mean to resolve conflicts has remained unchanged. In this text I tried to explain the wars, not to justify them. The explanation may contain the reasons that we do not accept, but the actors of the wars do. I exposed the arguments of the actors and I am not trying to justify or disapprove any of them. When I advance some or reject some, this is how the actors on one or the other side see them, not how I see them.The well being of the US citizens is the final goal of the US politics. To achieve this, the US superiority in many respects, including military superiority, is a must. Therefore, it is universally accepted in the US that this should be achieved, between other things, by the means of force and on the expense of the other nations. The ultimate and thereby the only adversary is a factor that can oppose the US force, and this is only Russia. All other forces could be ignored. It is believed that such end justifies all imaginable means. Belief that even the peaceful means are acceptable only if they will lead to the complete destruction of Russia creates unsupportable tension. The US strategy has been a slow permanent, step by step, approach to the Russia’s borders, initiation of the conflicts and regime changes in the frontiers countries and the similar efforts for the regime changes tendencies in Russia itself. The present Ukraine crises (caused by the non application of the Minsk agreements and terror of the Donbas citizens by the Ukarine and potential absorption of the Ukraine into NATO) is an example where the US may be satisfied with any solution that would even leave unresolved Ukrainian crises susceptible for some later incorporation into NATO, no matter in what form. All steps towards the ultimate target, destruction of Russia’s nuclear power are acceptable. We propose a Permanent Russo-American Conference that could resolve this tension.

Reflections on the Russia-Ukraine War, pp. 513-535, Leiden University Press, 2024

How will the ongoing war end? Following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, multiple unlikely endings are part of extensive public and academic debates: victory/defeat, an armistice/durable cease-fire, or a political settlement/peace deal. By stepping up to the challenge, this study examines war diplomacy in Ukraine and how it relates to the causes and endings of this war. A closer exploration of how Ukraine employs diplomacy in conducting war validates Tarak Barkawi's earlier statement: diplomacy is not the opposite of war. Diplomacy is not to be aligned with peace against war. The main objective is to advance scholarship on war diplomacy by outlining a basic explanatory framework to clarify how war diplomacy links with the causes and endings of war. The central question is: why is war diplomacy showing restraint towards ending the war that followed the Russian 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and what would it imply for explaining the causes of this war? The findings break new ground and trigger some novel inquiries.

Silk Road Virtual University Press, 2022

For the vast majority of Americans, a foreign war is something very far away that can be enjoyed in the living room in front of the television while eating junk food and/or having a beer or two. Now, in 2022, the US is provoking a war against an “adversary” that was a friend only a few years ago, and still wants to be friends, but the US won’t allow it. That is a normal thing for the US. What’s different about this war is for the first time in US history the US is demonizing, provoking, threatening and attacking via proxy, a contrived enemy that can hit back just as hard or harder. Gone soon, may be the living room, the television, junk food, beer, and most of what’s left of Western civilization. These are the stakes DC is playing with. The slide from proxy war to conventional war to nuclear war can happen in days or even hours. It’s a suicidal game with no winner, only losers. But the only thing that matters to the corporate chiefs that orchestrated this scenario is quarterly dividends. That they may not be alive to enjoy those dividends appears to have eluded them. President Biden, CNN, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, newspapers and broadcast news around the western world are all chanting in harmony: DESTROY PUTIN! “He is the personification of all that is evil in the world!” Daily “proofs” of his absolute evil are paraded before the media zombies of the world. More media addicted than ever, frustrated and bored after the long COVID-19 lock-downs, bad economy, fears and helplessness, Americans and western Europeans need someone to lash out at and vent their anger in righteous extreme violence. In an act of charity perhaps, the US corporate driven media has served up a human sacrifice on a silver platter for the pleasure of the frustrated and bored mob, the star attraction, the personification of all that is evil, the RUSSIAN PRESIDENT! The drumbeat of war quickens the pulse, sharpens the senses, and gives some meaning to an otherwise tepid and meaningless existence. Why wake up in the morning? Ah! What has that horrible fiend done now? And there are the US backed neo-Nazis running false-flag operations, pinning their own atrocities on Russians to give western audiences what they want, what they need and crave, a Great American President fighting a known threat to all that is good, kind and gentle in the world, like peaceful Ukraine. And so, the tender-hearted cry, watching the horrid atrocities attributed to President Putin on CNN and BBC. This build-up to a war against Russia was long in the making, pervasive, perfect, and stunning beyond belief. There is no questioning the videos, the photos, the heart-rending personal testimonials and the relentless 24/7 in-your-face “news.” There isn’t any question of innocence or guilt in the minds of western “news” consumers. President Putin is a war criminal, a monster, the personification of all that is or ever was, evil. Daily, new atrocities are paraded before the western audiences feeding their hunger for more, for blood, for punishment of the demon in human form, Putin. But how many of them stopped satiating their need to Make America Great Again, to consider the possibility that it’s all fake(?) just like the last war, and the one before that and the one before that and the one before that? Who cares!!?! America needs a hero, a Knight in Shining Armor like President Biden(!) to rescue them from the doldrums of all the problems in their ordinary lives. This is nothing new as noted by Stephen J. Heidt in his illuminating “Presidential Power and National Violence: James K. Polk’s Rhetorical Transfer of Savagery.” What is new is 1) the newly heightened technologically perfect, air-tight censorship in the west, and 2) the perfect fusion of Hollywood style theatrical "magic" and mainstream media news. To break the hypnotic spell binding fast the remnants of western civilization, this 346-page book contains history, a dispassionate review of the broadest range of available news, political analysis, a review of American and international laws and psycho-social analysis, and then lights the only possible path to a just peace guaranteeing self-determination and dignity for all. Don't read it at your own, and your family's risk. Or, read and share it with as many as possible as quickly as possible, for failure to do so may be more horrifying than any Euro-American can possible imagine. The rest of us? We've had 500 years of this and have had enough. The average 4-year-old learns cooperative play, and it's about time the US learns it too, before its too late, for everyone.