JRL NEWSWATCH: “The War in Ukraine Has Become a Peripheral Concern for the West” – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
“What seemed at first to be the start of a Third World War has turned out to be more akin to a Second Yugoslav War: a local conflict on the edge of Europe triggered by a slow-motion imperial collapse.”
“Throughout 2022, Europe was in shock. … Russia, owner of the continent’s most powerful armed forces, really was capable of sending tanks, missiles, and jets across its borders, bombing cities and seizing territory for no apparent reason …. The Russian army was a terrifying prospect that many believed capable of storming European capitals if it wasn’t stopped with nuclear weapons. In the end, it proved to be far less effective, but even so, the sight of destroyed cities, people huddled in subway stations by candlelight, and makeshift graves with cardboard headstones in residential courtyards was … shocking …. [Currently] [t]he relatively low intensity of the fighting and Putin’s imminent reelection as president mean the brutal new version of Russia is here to stay. In the West, the idea that dealings with Russia are inevitable … is gradually gaining traction — and that means the future legitim[iz]ation of a dictatorship via international contacts with both the West and the East. … We should be striving to retain unity when it comes to what is most important to us, despite social and political turmoil. For the moment, though, it feels as if we’re living through the darkest hour.”