An expert in the Russia-Ukraine war has warned Europe’s leaders to heed the lessons of the conflict or risk war spreading across the continent.
Dr Simon Bennett’s warnings come as Ukraine prepares to mark 34 years since it declared independence from Russian rule, on Sunday 24 August.
The University of Leicester academic outlines how Europe can survive the dual threats of Vladimir Putin’s “paranoia” and Donald Trump’s “selfishness”, in his second book on the conflict: The Russia-Ukraine War – Security Lessons: An Analysis Informed by Sociological Approaches to Risk Management.
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Reflecting on the lessons of the Russia-Ukraine war, Dr Bennett said, “Every war holds lessons and the Russia-Ukraine war is no exception. If the lessons from this bloody conflict are heeded, it could stop war expanding across Europe.
“We’ve seen that allies are wont to switch sides out of self-interest, Donald Trump’s USA being a candidate.
“Meanwhile, the West’s refusal to deploy troops to Ukraine has been read by Putin as a sign of weakness and has made a wider European war more likely.
“Russia–Ukraine has shown that the Cold War never ended. Cold War mindsets and cleavages persist. Putin is resolved to recreate the Soviet empire. Europe will only survive if it stops talking about ‘security guarantees’ – which, in the context of Putin’s duplicitous and colonialist regime, are worthless – and rearms at pace. In 1938 in Munich, Hitler stated in writing he had no unmet territorial ambitions. He later walked into Czechoslovakia. Weapons and the will to use them are the only effective security guarantees.”
Dr Bennett went on to pinpoint other areas of the conflict which offer up more lessons which Europe must action.
He said: “As demonstrated by Ukraine’s innovative drone manufacturing sector, a strong indigenous defence industrial base, supported by relevant university teaching and research, is a prerequisite for success on the battlefield.
“The war has also shown that critical national infrastructure and manufacturing capacity must be safeguarded through layered air defence, hardening and dispersal.
“Also, in time of war, the inter-state dependencies created by globalisation render participating states vulnerable.”
Dr Bennett added: “The war has also shown that technophilia – an obsession with complex, high-technology weapons systems – is a dysfunction. The Ukrainian military’s revival of Jagdkampf – the doctrine of irregular warfare centred on small, highly mobile and relatively autonomous fighting units – has delivered serial successes.”
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