Attention Economy


Tuesday, March 1, 2022

The Shadow of History and Perpetual Wars

We must end the war on Ukraine — and put an end to perpetual wars
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/01/cold-war-russia-ukraine-avoid/
Katrina vanden Heuvel notes:
Putin has simply (and brutally) reasserted Russia’s role. The old order — with its Cold War attitudes, militaries, alliances and enmities — is reclaiming center stage.
NATO, adrift since the Soviet Union ended, now claims new purpose and energy. Hawks in Russia and the United States alike are emboldened. Weapons-makers are drawing up plans to profit in the coming arms buildup, and ideologues and demagogues are dusting off familiar rhetoric. China, clearly helping Russia mitigate its sanctions, now weighs heavily in the balance.
As this old reality settles back in, we will pay a continuing price for ignoring George F. Kennan, the grand strategist of containment who warned that expanding NATO to Russia’s borders after the collapse of the Soviet Union was bound to lead to “the beginning of a new Cold War” — and all its folly.
 
Putin Isn’t Alone in His Imperial Fantasies
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-03-01/ukraine-invasion-putin-shares-imperial-fantasies-with-xi-erdogan
Leaders of the other former land-based Eurasian empires China, Turkey and Iran have also decided that the best way to shore up their legitimacy is to appeal to past glories.
 
From Shock Therapy to Putin's War
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/1990s-shock-therapy-set-stage-for-russian-authoritarianism-by-katharina-pistor-2022-02
 
Russia, Ukraine and the 30-year quest for a post-Soviet order
https://www.ft.com/content/742f15fc-675a-4622-b022-cbec444651cf
Historian Mary Elise Sarotte tells the inside story of the west’s efforts to secure a post-cold-war settlement — and how Putin seized on missteps and Russian grievances to destroy it
 
Many predicted Nato expansion would lead to war. Those warnings were ignored
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/nato-expansion-war-russia-ukraine