The End of War

Society

This article argues that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine marks a distinctive challenge to the liberal international order. The invasion challenges principles of strategic restraint, demonstrates that economic interdependence can lead to violent conflict as well as promote cooperation and peace, and requires novel normative justifications. Initiated by Putin, the war also reveals broader contradictions within the liberal international order that date back to its construction in the aftermath of the Cold War.

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.

International Critical Thought, 2023

With Russia's attack on Ukraine the decline of the imperialist rule of the United States and its subordinate allies has accelerated, while the emergence of a multipolar world draws nearer. The author first describes how the structure, toolkit, inherent contradictions of imperialism, as well as the role of fascism, have altered in the last century, then explains the challenges imperialism faces today. This is followed by a discussion of the reasons for the Ukrainian war and the unhuman reactions of the North Atlantic powers. The author argues that only the defeat of imperialism and the emergence of a multipolar world will open the road to socialism at global level.

Russia’s War on Ukraine: Implications and Prospects for the International Order, 2022

This study aims to contribute to current and future debates over Russia’s war on Ukraine that would place it within the evolving historical pace of the international order. To that aim, the study first discusses the historical development and characteristics of the contemporary international order. Then the study outlines the process that paved the way for the current level of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Successive sections also discuss the positions of Russia, the West, China and Turkey vis-à-vis the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as well as the wider conflict between Russia and the West. The study ends with a concluding section within which prospects and implications for the international level are elaborated.

Contemporary Security Policy, 2023

Few predicted the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine and especially its brutality. Similarly, Ukraine's capable and determined resistance came as a surprise to many. Ukraine, viewed through the Russian lenses, was erroneously characterized as "weak" and "fragmented." In turn, Russia was seen as a modern power seeking a "sphere of influence" through attraction and occasional meddling in neighbors' affairs. The Ukraine-Russia relations were misconstrued as "brotherly." I argue that Russia should be understood as a colonial power whose aggression aims to re-establish supremacy over the Ukrainian nation. This desire arose from Ukrainians' increased acceptance in Europe, which Russians perceived as a transgression of hierarchies. The brutality of the invasion was aggravated by the Russian forces' realization that Ukrainians not only rejected their "rescue mission" but did not need one in the first place. Misconceptions about the Russian invasion can be addressed through interdisciplinarity, engagement with postcolonial scholarship, and attention to facts.

International Critical Thought (Special Issue), 2016

Special issue of International Critical Thought Vol 6, no. 4, December 2016, co-edited by Boris Kagarlitsky and Alan Freeman. In this introduction, we provide a noveral lframing of the articles that follow by placing the Ukraine conflict which today embroils theWest in confrontation with Russia, within an historical account of the geopolitical economy of contemporary capitalism and the dynamics of imperialism in the twenty-first century, taking particular account of the decline of US and Western power and the rise of other centres of economic and military power, which are able to resist and contest Western power. We pay particular attention to how today's geopolitical flashpoints, of which Ukraine is among the most critical, emerged to belie post-Cold War expectations of a “peace dividend” and a “unipolar” world, clearly distinguishing the US and the EU roles in these processes. Given the widespread tendency in the West to label Russia “imperialist,” particularly after the integration of Crimea into the RussianFederation, we end our discussion with a consideration of this question which concludes that the term, while it continues to bean appropriate description of the pattern of Western actions, is not so for that of Russian ones.

International Critical Thought, 2016

In this introduction, we provide an overall framing of the articles that follow by placing the Ukraine conflict which today embroils the West in confrontation with Russia, within an historical account of the geopolitical economy of contemporary capitalism and the dynamics of imperialism in the twenty-first century, taking particular account of the decline of US and Western power and the rise of other centres of economic and military power, which are able to resist and contest Western power. We pay particular attention to how today's geopolitical flashpoints, of which Ukraine is among the most critical, emerged to belie post-Cold War expectations of a "peace dividend" and a "unipolar" world, clearly distinguishing the US and the EU roles in these processes. Given the widespread tendency in the West to label Russia "imperialist," particularly after the integration of Crimea into the Russian Federation, we end our discussion with a consideration of this question which concludes that the term, while it continues to be an appropriate description of the pattern of Western actions, is not so for that of Russian ones.

Routledge, 2017

This book is a unique contribution to scholarship on the sources of the conflict in Ukraine. Bringing together writers from Russia, Ukraine, Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia, it was provoked by a gathering of scholars and activists from all over Ukraine, held in Yalta, Crimea just after the conflict in Eastern Ukraine erupted. Challenging both the demonization of Russia which has become standard for Western writing on the topic, and the simplistic discourse of official Russian sources, this book scrutinizes the events of the conflict and the motives of the agents, bringing to the fore the underlying causes of the most critical flashpoints of the post-Soviet world order. This volume offers a refreshing, profound perspective on the Ukraine conflict, and will be an indispensable source for any student or researcher. I am uploading the Table of Contents and the Introduction

Studies in East European Thought 2022, vol. 74, nr 4

Is Russia a neoimperial or postimperial state? In this paper, I compare two interpretations proposed by political commentators Marcel Van Herpen and Dmitri Trenin. Van Herpen holds that the Russian empire is literally being rebuilt, whereas Trenin believes that Russia is just ceasing to be an empire. I argue that, contrary to popular belief, the current war against Ukraine cannot be interpreted as an attempt to restore the Russian empire. This is because being an empire requires a universalistic ideology that can be accepted by other nations. Meanwhile, the ideological foundation of the current war is an obviously nationalistic conception of the "Russian world." Polish historians Andrzej Nowak and Włodzimierz Marciniak brilliantly argued that it was Russian nationalism that had previously led to the collapse of both Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. Under this interpretation the current war in Ukraine can be seen not as the rebirth but rather as the dramatic end of Russian imperialism.

Russia's neo-imperial powerplay in Ukraine: The factors of identity and interests, 2022

Russian military aggression and diplomatic pressure against Ukraine stems from the neo-imperial thinking of Russian elites and ordinary citizens. This thinking requires a reproduction of expansionist patterns that once led Russia to its “historical greatness”: construction of a territorially large state, rich in resources and demographically diverse, with its own distinct voice in international relations. The human cost for “making Russia forever great,” however, has rarely been seriously considered.