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Ukraine

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    3/28/2023

    Will Ukraine be Remembered as the War of Surprises?

    by Rajan Menon

    Neither the perceived threat of NATO expansion nor Putin's alleged fears of liberalization explain the move to an all-out invasion. This uncertainty remains confounding, as has the progress of the war. 

  • 3/5/2023

    Whose "Red Lines"?

    by Lawrence Wittner

    Far from promoting clarity and stability, when powerful nations declare "red lines" in their dealings with the world they declare their intentions to impose their will on others. Peace-promoting red lines must be drawn by more robust international cooperation. 

  • SOURCE: Hollywood Progressive
    3/1/2023

    "Mr. Jones" Shows Fake News Has Always Been a Weapon Against Ukraine

    by Walter G. Moss

    The new Amazon feature "Mr. Jones" details the famine imposed on Ukraine by Stalin's policies in the 1930s, and the battle among journalists to control the story. It's a timely reminder of the connection of information and power. 

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    2/17/2023

    Stephen Kotkin on How the Ukraine War Could End

    The historian of Russia and the USSR argues that Putin's invasion will ultimately be seen as a disaster for Russia. Its unclear, however, if that view is sufficiently widespread in Russia to change Putin's strategic outlook or the regime. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    2/14/2023

    Ukrainian Civilians' Experience of Violence

    by Anne Applebaum and Nataliya Gumenyuk

    Russian soldiers exposed to propaganda that Ukrainians were unwilling subjects of their local governments expected civilian support to capture political leaders; when this expectation was confounded, they unleashed violence. 

  • 2/12/2023

    Russia's Courageous War Resisters

    by Lawrence Wittner

    While most Russians have chosen silence in the wake of Putin's harsh anti-dissent measures, and many military-aged men have opted to leave the country, a core of protesters have braved violence and imprisonment to denounce the Ukraine invasion. 

  • SOURCE: Substack
    2/8/2023

    Nuclear Fears Clouding Thinking on Ukraine

    by Timothy Snyder

    "Once we turn our attention to a hypothetical exchange of missiles, we get to imagine that we are the victims.  Suddenly the actual war no longer seems to matter, since our lives (we imagine) are at risk.  And the Ukrainians seem to be at fault."

  • 1/15/2023

    Resisting Nationalism in Education

    by Jacob Goodwin

    "Countering the pull toward nationalistic authoritarianism requires intellectual openness and curiosity.  This is a challenge in the time of recovery from the global pandemic, environmental catastrophe and jagged economic turbulence."

  • SOURCE: Noema
    1/10/2023

    Why the Kremlin Made "Z" its Symbol of the Ukraine Invasion

    by Alexander Etkind

    Can Russia's aggression against Ukraine be explained by its leaders fetishizing the small differences in national life, and the divergent fortunes of the post-Soviet generation, in the two countries? Are those gaps so small that only an invented symbol could express them? 

  • SOURCE: Boston Review
    1/11/2023

    Will Ukraine Be the Death of German Pacifism?

    by Stephen Milder

    The real transformation wrought in Europe by the Russian invasion isn't the return of war (which was certainly present in the 1990s) but the turn of Germany away from a post-fascist pacifist posture to a potential remilitarization. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    1/3/2023

    Zelensky's Attire in Congress Wasn't Slovenly, it was Strategic

    by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox

    Zelensky, without military experience, has thread the needle between evoking patriotic fighting spirit and appropriating unearned military credibility with his much-discussed attire in Congress. His outfit is part of a long tradition of dress choices by world leaders.