Coming the day after President Trump’s failed effort to win an immediate ceasefire, Professor Sakwa provided refreshing, if searing, descriptions of the state of the war, its causes, the incompatible and maximalist demands of both Kyiv and Moscow, the U.S. and E.U. opposition to the 2022 Istanbul near-agreement, and how the combination of war, European militarism, and the Trump shocks, and China’s rise have Europe on the path to “suicide.” Professor Sakwa explained what besieged U.N. Charter order and the related model of ASEAN and Global South comity as the alternatives that can provide peace, security, and hope.
Professor Sakwa of Kent University in Britain was an Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at Chatham House (2002-20), a Senior Research Fellow at the National Research University-Higher School of Economics in Moscow (2014-2024), and a member of Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences (2002-2022). His books include Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands and his more recent The Culture of the Second Cold War which was issued in October.