10 surprises of the War

This article is dedicated to the surprises that Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine brought with it. The author counts ten such circumstances: the beginning of a full-scale war in Europe; the actual clash between Russia and the United States, despite the fact that for many years the United States considered China its enemy; fierce military resistance of Ukraine, despite its state of a failed state; Russia’s economic stability; the complete submission of the European Union countries to the political will of the United States; the unexpectedly active involvement of Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries as Russia’s major opponents in Europe; the weakness of the American military-industrial complex, unable to meet the military needs of Ukraine; the ideological loneliness of the West, whom not only China, but also the countries of the global South and the Muslim world refused to unconditionally support. The last surprise, according to the author, will be the impending defeat of the West. It will be a consequence of the its deep ongoing crisis. This crisis is primarily caused by the decline of the idea of the nation state in its classical form. In the case of the United States, it took the form of a post-imperial state formation.

Thus, two mentalities collide in this conflict. On the one hand, the strategic realism of nation state, and on the other, the post-imperial mentality. Neither mentality fully understands the other. Russia does not understand that the West no longer consists of nation states, and the West has become immune to the idea of national sovereignty. However, this asymmetry works in Russia’s favor, since its stakes in this conflict are existential.