The latest edition of the Journal of Military and Strategic Studies is now out. It consists of a special edition devoted to the war in Ukraine, with articles by myself, Alexander Hill, Andrei Tsygankov, Andrej Krickovic and Richard Sakwa, Geoffrey Roberts, and Olayinka Ajala. The journal is open access, so you can all read it free of charge here.
In his introduction to the special edition, Professor Hill notes that:
what sets these authors apart is that they all are willing to write about what they have seen and understand without feeling obliged to follow an unofficial party line in the Western media that all but dictates a particularly blinkered and flawed understanding of many aspects of Russia’s war in the interests of what is perceived as supporting Ukraine. All of those writing here are unwilling to sacrifice their critical faculties for fashionable short-term political ends, and as serious scholars their desire to understand rather than to judge is paramount. As such, and as I hope you’ll agree having read their work, they have produced a thought-provoking range of essays on current events and the background to them that will challenge many of the assumptions on which much Western media reporting and wider understanding of the war rest.
My own contribution is a sort of ‘lessons learnt from the war in Ukraine’. It examines theories of the allegedly changing character of war and then compares them to the realities of the war in Ukraine. To avoid spoilers, I will not say what I conclude, but invite you to read the article here.
Your views on my piece, or any of the others in the journal, are welcome in the comments section on this blog.
IRRUSSIANALITY 