Russia’s war in Ukraine has been met with global condemnation drawing NATO and the EU closer together in coordinating collective responses. In contrast to this coordinated front among US, French and German responses, it is worth drawing attention to the mixed regional responses among states in the Middle East for whom the war can have… Read more »
Tag: Russia
The new Great Patriotic War
Leaders in both Ukraine and Russia are making ammunition out of the Soviet Union’s wartime history. Who are the fascists this time? It is both painful and strange to see photographs of Ukrainian civilians signing up for military service in the war against the Russians. Some of the volunteers are disturbingly young, their protective gear… Read more »
The Digital Battlefield
Photos, stories and videos featuring victims of the war in Ukraine are spreading all over the world on social media. This will change our perception of war. So far, cyber attacks and cyber operations have played a smaller role than expected in the warfare in Ukraine, social media on the other hand, have been more… Read more »
Will the Russian-Ukrainian War Resonate in Syria?
The predictable and yet shockingly brutal Russian invasion into Ukraine on 24 February 2022 has in the course of three weeks sent many tremors across the world system. Major stock markets experience strong corrections, oil prices register new highs, importers of wheat and sunflower oil are nervously checking their stocks, but one place that hasn’t… Read more »
Fascism and Masculine Ideals – Thoughts on the Russian War in Ukraine
The renewed Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is still raging on, and our thoughts naturally turn to the ways in which we can provide assistance and aid to both the defenders and the victims. If one simultaneously wishes to take an analytical look at the broader picture, there are multiple perspectives that would be… Read more »
Why Putin is Losing – The Weakness of Personalist Dictatorship
When personalistic dictators go to war, they are more likely to miscalculate and lose than leaders of other types of regimes. Such failures can have dramatic consequences for the stability of their regime at home, as well as for the rest of the world. Russia’s grotesque invasion of Ukraine is one of the most horrific… Read more »
Putin Keeps Losing All the Wars He Has Started
The word “war” is presently banned in the official Russian discourse on Ukraine, but in fact the “special military operation” launched on President Vladimir Putin’s order early morning February 24, includes several wars fought in different domains. The massive invasion into Ukraine constitutes the most kinetic of them, but on the highest level Putin imagines… Read more »
Will Taiwan Be the Next Ukraine?
“Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.” This warning rings through Taiwanese social media. “We should not allow this problem to be passed down from one generation to the next,” said Xi Jinping in 2019 about the political differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The annual report from the Chinese government that was issued on… Read more »
Putin, Xi, and World War III
Vladimir Putin is playing for high stakes against the US and its allies on the global scene. Since Xi Jinping does not play along, Putin has temporarily transformed a bipolar power system into a triangular game, with Xi in the middle. Yet Xi is the one that Biden fears most. China does not have and… Read more »
Ukraine as an Instance of State Repression
The crisis in Ukraine reveals some distinct opinions about how the world is viewed. Most accurately, people see Russia as distinct from Ukraine, in which case what is taking place would be best evaluated as interstate war. Putin and his supporters, however, seem to see things in a different way. On the one hand, they… Read more »