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Category: current events
No Need to Negotiate?
Before this post, a quick reminder that you can buy a lovely Peace of Westphalia mug as a last-minute Christmas present. Apparently, I have been labouring under the misconception that peace is better than war, and negotiations are the best way to peace. I have found articles in the past month arguing the contrary position, …
“How to End a War”
This title, taken from an article at Euractiv, seems appropriate after our last post about ending the Russia-Ukraine war. It is actually more interesting that just another take, however, because it proposes an alternate solution that I hadn’t considered: what if the war just peters out and never has a formal end? The article points …
Two Articles on Putin’s Approach to the War
“Why Vladimir Putin Would Use Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine” (The New Yorker) is a disturbing but, I think, convincing argument that Westerners are fooling ourselves with arguments why Putin would not use nuclear weapons. It includes disturbing information, such as the fact that Russian television keeps repeating Putin’s nuclear threats, or this quotation: “We are …
Peace of Westphalia in the news, 9/2022
Our first entry today is a simple notice about a photo prize competition, the German Peace Prize for Photography. This was apparently added in 2019 as an additional category to the Felix Schoeller Photo Award competition, drawing on the fact that Felix Schoeller is from Osnabrück, and Osnabrück is associated with the Peace of Westphalia. …
Peace of Westphalia in the News, 8/2022
Our first article from August is “But Are They ‘War Crimes’?,” which appeared in Commonweal Magazine, a lay Catholic journal. This is a rare article that provides significant background on the definition of war crimes in international law, considers Ukrainian accusations, and assesses which Russia might be guilty of. I find the concept of war …
The Nuclear Threat and How to Avoid It
After a period of relative calm during the summer, the threat of a nuclear exchange coming out of the Russia-Ukraine war seems to have increased drastically in the last few weeks. How serious is it, and how can we avoid it? Someone commented to me recently that dictators such as Putin enjoy a lot of …
Peace of Westphalia in the News, 5/2022
The last entry reminded me why I stopped doing these: so little relevance to the Peace of Westphalia (mostly as the origin of nation-states, sovereignty, and/or balance of power), poor writing, mostly partisan works from nationalists. But, I will forge on, especially as there are some better things forthcoming. I also noticed that I had …
Ukraine Still Winning?
Time flies, and I haven’t gotten back to the Russia-Ukraine war in months. As far as peace negotiations go, I don’t seem to have missed much, as the talks have long since been suspended. As far as the war is concerned, we left off with Russia’s continuing the war in spite of making little apparent …
Ukraine and Westphalia
I have fallen behind in reporting on Westphalia in the news. Here is a down payment toward catching up, starting with two articles relating to Ukraine. The Global System Has Failed. Ukraine Is Showing the World How to Build A Better One, published in Time, is written by a Ukrainian political figure. He considers the …
And Still It Continues
It is always hazardous to suggest when a war might end, as experience shows that people have been extraordinarily bad in their estimates, especially early in wars. And yet, I thought I saw a reasonable end to the Russia-Ukraine war just a month or so after it started. Russia’s progress was slow and its military …