Philosophical Apprentice comments.
Opinion War in Ukraine
Headline: Time is of the essence in defending Ukraine
Sub-Headline: Western calls for peace talks ignore the Kremlin’s determination to pursue its war of conquest Time is of the essence in defending Ukraine
https://www.ft.com/content/36ba12ed-7a0f-4a3a-870e-b38363ad92d9
Read the first two paragraphs of Gwendolyn Sasse’s essay:
Time keeps ticking relentlessly. The challenge of crisis management and policymaking more generally is to get ahead of it rather than watching days, months or years go by. From the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia’s war against Ukraine has been characterised by diverging time horizons and the expectations that go with them. To date, connecting the different time zones of this war has proved impossible, but the urgent necessity of doing so has increased steadily. Time zones that drift apart create room for manoeuvre — in this case, for Russia and for those in western countries who want to polarise and undermine democratic values along the way.
Ukraine now has to get through its second winter since the full-scale invasion. The US presidential elections loom large over western support for Kyiv. The Israel-Hamas war reduces the already diminishing public attention span for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Next June’s European parliament elections may make the EU appear more fragile than ever. In the meantime, Russia has adjusted economically and politically to sustain a much longer war than initially intended.
Let The Reader consider this excerpt titled About us in reference to The Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS):
…
Eastern Europe is in a state of flux. The importance of dedicated regional research undertaken in long-term projects for providing the necessary profound knowledge is clearer today than ever before. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine underscores the value of our nuanced view of a region that defies common assumptions and ascriptions. A comprehensive and multi- or interdisciplinary approach is needed to capture and convey the diversity and dynamics of the region, including its entanglements.
Russia’s war on Ukraine is a watershed that presents major challenges not only to political actors worldwide but also to researchers. Data collection has become difficult or impossible in some cases, and cooperations have been terminated, adapted or newly established. As yet, we can only guess at the dimensions of the consequences of the war. Only high-quality regional research across a wide range of academic disciplines can rise to these challenges and provide crucial impetus for research, politics and public discourse.
…
Might the above quotation appear like a self-serving recitations of well worn cliches? that reads as if it were the rhetorical twin, of Gwendolyn Sasse’s two above quoted paragraphs?
In the interest of not wasting The Readers valuable time, let me focus on the other cliches as they appear to me… it may not be without fault, but might offer some insight into this Gwendolyn Sasse’s Political/Ideological/Methodology, if it can be named that ?
What are some of the time zones of this war?
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine felt like a surprise despite the preceding stages.
By definition, for Ukrainians, assistance always comes too late.
Making a promise for the future is one thing, delivering on promises in the present is something else.
The language framing the war is also marked by references to time.
Vladimir Putin himself thinks in centuries of continuity of Russian imperial rule.
In times of war, a word or phrase carries particular weight. But even a principled position is not sufficient in itself and has to be measured against current and future action.
It spreads a sense of uncertainty and creates space for those considering or calling for peace negotiations.
This must include a decision on using the remaining window of time to step up military assistance to Ukraine and military production in Europe.
Thinking about Russia’s war against Ukraine in temporal logic underlines that time is of the essence. The time zones of Ukraine and its western allies need to be reconnected before entirely new ones open up in 2024.
Philosophical Apprentice
StephenKMackSD's Blog 