![]() The creation of national-security states veiled the machinations of governments while providing endless justifications for defensive aggression. The corruption that enriched kleptocrats isolated them from accountability, engendering cynicism and apathy within societies. The backlash to globalization, consumerism, and cultural homogeneity sent strongmen in search of an updated brand of identity politics. Yet despite its historical echoes, the war also feels like the product of the peculiar circumstances of our post–Cold War era. Perhaps it is no coincidence that at precisely the time when living memory of World War II is fading away, humanity has failed to heed the lessons of our worst history. ![]() And in many ways, the tolls of the war-cities reduced to rubble, civilians caught amid armies, refugees moving en masse across European borders, threats of nuclear annihilation-recall the circumstances that shocked world powers into creating an international system to prevent another world war. Putin’s efforts to reconstitute empire and “protect” Russian speakers beyond national borders tap into currents of history running deep underneath our collective experience. ![]() Europe’s largest invasion since World War II is a logical outcome of Vladimir Putin’s dominance of Russian politics in the 21st century, a reminder that grievance-based ethno-nationalism and authoritarianism lead inexorably to conflict. ![]()
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