CHACRCRITIQUE MAY 2024
#8
WAR OF THE WORDS
China and strategy (he is also the editor of the Prior to 2022 the literature examining 2023 updated version of Makers of Modern conflict in Ukraine was relatively small, Strategy). As he notes in his excellent opening specialised and generally academic chapter, it is intended as a provisional history, in tone. In the two years since, the as “[c]oming to grips with a war in progress situation has almost entirely reversed in is like shooting at a moving target”. Such so much as publishers – both academic conferences and publications, nonetheless, are and trade – compete with one another an ‘essential’ activity to support the work of to produce books tracing the origins policy-makers and analysts and this certainly and subsequent drivers for what has provides an absolutely critical addition to any become Europe’s most deadly conflict reading on this conflict. since 1945. As one of the world’s leading professors of security studies Every one of the 21 contributors and 17 recently commented privately, they chapters offers something to the have more than 20 books on reader, whether it be to confirm the subject currently on their “THERE IS desk and this number seems CONSIDERABLE or challenge how the war is understood. Organised into to grow every week. Johns Hopkins University Press, Paperback, $32.95, ISBN: 9781421449869
TITLE War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World EDITOR Hal Brands REVIEWER Professor Andrew Stewart, Head of Conflict Research, CHACR
INTEREST IN WEIGHING INTANGIBLES, SUCH AS MORALE, AGAINST THE TANGIBLES.”
Amongst this glut, one of the very best – War in Ukraine: Conflict, strategy and the return of a fractured world – is based on a recent conference and has been published in quick time and made freely available for download. Its editor is Hal Brands – a distinguished professor at the internationally renowned John Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies and leading voice on this conflict (he has described Ukraine as a global proxy war and the first of what he terms “Cold War II”) – who has also written extensively on
three broad themes – ‘Origins and Overviews’, ‘The Conflict’ and ‘Global Dimensions and Implications’ – there is a smooth flow from how it began to how it will end, with some interesting diversions along the way. These include discussions on planning, nuclear deterrence, resilience and adaptation, the impact of economic sanctions and a lot of examination of what drives Vladimir Putin. There is even a chapter on what the war means for the European Union; Mark Leonard’s assessment on the latter is that the potential exists for a much strengthened body to materialise which can defend itself, better use its economic power “and emerge as an equal partner to the United States”. In his chapter, Michael Kofman, an American military analyst born in Cold War Ukraine, provides a 22-page synthesis of the war up to February of this year and the eventual capture by Russia of the city of Avdiivka. In his concluding comments he notes that the conflict has actually “validated” expectations as, once the Russian ‘coup de main’ had failed, “the long war that followed hewed closely to historical patterns of large-scale protracted wars” as both sides have struggled with combining mass and firepower. He is doubtful on Western military support, “tactically significant, and even at times operationally impactful, but strategically indecisive”. Advantages have been fleeting and even drones, while facilitating new tactics and strike options, did not lead to
WAR OF THE WORDS // CHACR CRITIQUE