TOWARD A THEORY OF SUCCESS IN UKRAINE
A stalemate in the Donbas as winter sets in. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Russia
Brian Whitmore, “Phantom Limbs and Zombie Brains How Putin’s Russia ‘Captures’ Its Neighbors” November 8th, 2023
Brian Whitmore talk at the University of Texas at Arlington. Above is the transcript of the Team’s meeting.
UKRAINE’S HOME FRONT
Recent remarks by Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top military commander, that the war with Russia is locked in a stalemate with no breakthrough on the horizon landed in a toxic political atmosphere in the West in which support for military assistance to Kyiv is ebbing and the issue is becoming polarized. Continue reading
BREAKING THE STALEMATE
Ukraine’s top military commander said this week that his troops are locked in a “stalemate” with Russia and that “no deep and beautiful breakthrough” is on the horizon Continue reading
UNPACKING PUTIN’S GLOBAL STRATEGY
More than 20 months after Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the dominant conventional wisdom is that Vladimir Putin’s autocratic and imperial regime has been isolated and ostracized. Moscow’s relations with the West have been all but severed. Putin’s travel is severely limited due to war crimes indictments. And the Russian economy is cut off from global financial markets due to sanctions. Continue reading
600 DAYS OF WAR
Vladimir Putin makes a rare foreign trip, visiting Beijing to attend the Belt and Road Forum, where he is greeted warmly by Xi Jinping. The two autocratic leaders claimed they were trying to establish a “fairer, multipolar world.” Continue reading
THE NEW CRIMEAN WAR
It’s been almost a decade since Russia illegally annexed Crimea with Vladimir Putin calling the peninsula sacred ground. And the public reaction to this first forceful change of borders in … Continue reading
THE PUTINIST IDEOLOGY
What does Vladimir Putin believe? Is there a coherent ideology driving his regime, its autocracy, and its imperial ambitions? If so, where did this ideology come from? And what does it mean for Russian domestic and foreign policy going forward? Continue reading
THE WAR IN AUTUMN
Following Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the United States, and as Ukraine continues to make incremental gains in its counteroffensive in the east, reports are surfacing that Washington is finally ready to provide Kyiv with the long-range ATACMS missile systems it has been seeking. Continue reading
WAR, PUNISHMENT, AND CATHARSIS
How does Russia’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine look from the perspective of a thoughtful Russian who publicly opposes the war, is horrified by its conduct, and has been motivated to painfully reexamine his own country’s history and culture as a result? Continue reading