Howorth, Jolyon (2022)

Jolyon discusses the weaknesses of the European Union as shown by the war against Ukraine. A lack of strength and unity towards Russia and the EU being not a military or security actor is noticed by Russia and the US.

“The crisis in Ukraine has highlighted the weaknesses of the EU as an international actor. Although the EU is an economic, commercial and regulatory giant, it has not succeeded in emerging as a significant military or security actor—despite having announced a ‘common foreign and security policy’ 30 years ago. In particular, it is deeply divided over policy towards Russia. Moreover, attempts to devise an overall policy for its neighbourhood, and in particular an ‘Eastern Partnership’ focused on the borderline states between the Union and Russia, have been widely judged as failures. In the showdown between Russia and the West over Ukraine, the EU per se has been marginalised by both Moscow and Washington. Various EU member states have embraced different preferences with respect to the potential resolution of the Ukraine crisis. In the context of potential discussions, demanded by Vladimir Putin, on a ‘new security order’ for Eurasia, the EU’s absence is tragic.”

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17816858221089371 (21.02.2023).

Demarais, Agathe (2022),   ISBN:9780231199902, Columbia University Press

Based on the US instrumentalisation of sanctions as a low cost measure in different international contexts, the author discusses the impact the sanctions have on the US. It also covers sanctions taken to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

“Backfire explores the surprising ways sanctions affect multinational companies, governments, and ultimately millions of people around the world. Drawing on interviews with experts, policy makers, and people in sanctioned countries, Agathe Demarais examines the unintended consequences of the use of sanctions as a diplomatic weapon. The proliferation of sanctions spurs efforts to evade them, as states and firms seek ways to circumvent U.S. penalties. This is only part of the story. Sanctions also reshape relations between countries, pushing governments that are at odds with the U.S. closer to each other—or, increasingly, to Russia and China.”

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/backfire/9780231553339

Colborne, Michael (2022),  Ibidem Press

The Azov movement grew from a militia and football hooligans to a social movement. Now, it is a role model for the global far right. The book discusses how the movement could and is exploiting the Ukraines social and political situation including its action in the war. The Author considers the Azov movement as the most dangerous far-right movement in the world.

“From its roots in revolution and war, Ukraine’s Azov movement has grown from a militia of fringe far-right figures and football hooligans fending off Russian-backed forces into a multipronged social movement that has become the envy of the global far right. In this first English-language book on the Azov movement, Michael Colborne explains how Azov came to be and continues to exploit Ukraine’s fractured social and political situation—including the only ongoing war on European soil – to build one of the most ambitious and dangerous far-right movements in the world.”

http://cup.columbia.edu/book/from-the-fires-of-war/9783838215082

Balmaceda, Margarita M. (2021),  ISBN: 9780231197496, Columbia University

This book helps to understand the power Russia has through its Energy chain. The book offers an evaluation of Russia’s value chain which helps to understand the full cycle of exporting energy and stakeholders who are benefiting from it. By analysing the export of gas, oil and coal, it shows how that energy is used as a threat and how it became a key driver for political development in modern day Russia. 

“Russia’s use of its vast energy resources for leverage against post-Soviet states such as Ukraine is widely recognized as a threat. Yet we cannot understand this danger without also understanding the opportunity that Russian energy represents. From corruption-related profits to transportation-fee income to subsidised prices, many within these states have benefited by participating in Russian energy exports. To understand Russian energy power in the region, it is necessary to look at the entire value chain—including production, processing, transportation, and marketing—and at the full spectrum of domestic and external actors involved, from Gazprom to regional oligarchs to European Union regulators.”

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/russian-energy-chains/9780231197496

Pawlak, Mikolaj, (2022)

The author of this paper focuses on the organisation of aid for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. The question that is the basis of this paper is: Why, in the case of Ukrainian refugees, is there almost unanimity in organising aid, while in the past other categories of refugees were denied aid? 

https://doi.org/10.1177/017084062210991

Chumachenko Dmytro and Chumachenko Tetyana, (2022)

This paper emphasises that the international community must ensure the supply of humanitarian aid from European countries. Russia must comply with international humanitarian law, ensure the protection of the civilian population, and refrain from unlawful attacks. The space for neutral, impartial, and independent humanitarian action must be protected so that humanitarian organisations can have access to civilians.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o796

Anthony Fong and Kirsten Johnson, (2022)

This paper covers how people and organisations can contribute and help respond to the war in Ukraine. It is known that one’s well-intended actions can do harm if not coordinated with organisations experienced in disaster response. Even for licensed emergency physicians, humanitarian-aid work requires specific training to be most effective.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43678-022-00319-8 

Nezhyva Mariia and Mysiuk Viktoriia, (2022)

The aim of the article is to study the impact of the war in Ukraine on inflation risks and challenges for the world economy. At the same time, the paper wants to emphasise that it is expected that the war in Ukraine will have a significant impact on the economy and consumers in terms of such actions: expanding the supply chain, increasing inflationary pressures, deteriorating economic prospects. 

https://www.academia.edu/85437786/War_in_Ukraine_challenges_for_the_global_economy 

Knott, Eleanor (2022)

‘If Russia stops fighting, there will be no war. If Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no Ukraine’ is the sentiment used by Ukrainian protesters mobilising against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Such a sentiment signifies the stakes of a war where Ukraine is a democratic nation-state fighting for its right to exist against a Russian invasion. Meanwhile, Russia is fighting for a version of Ukraine that is subservient to Russia’s idea of what Ukraine should be as a nation-state: under a Russian hegemon geopolitically, where Ukraine’s national idea and interpretation of history can be vetted and vetoed by the Russian state. While nationalism scholarship equips us to study Russia’s war against Ukraine through the lens of Russian ethnic nationalism and Ukrainian civic nationalism, the ethnic/civic dichotomy falls short of unpacking the more pernicious logics that pervade Russia’s intentions and actions towards Ukraine (demilitarisation and de-Nazification). Instead, this article explores the logics of Russia’s war and Ukraine’s resistance through the concept of existential nationalism where existential nationalism is Russia’s motivation to pursue war, whatever the costs, and Ukraine’s motivation to fight with everything it has.

https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12878 

Layton, Peter, (2022)

“Russia’s war has stalled. There are small advances, but at high cost. Russian forces started the war with simultaneous attacks across Ukraine. They have not been able to do such advances for almost two weeks now. The Ukrainian armed forces are taking advantage of this and inflicting a grinding rate of attrition.”

https://www.academia.edu/74267567/Scenarios_for_the_war_in_Ukraine