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Russia’s wars on Georgia and Ukraine

Forestalling an existential threat

The original essay was written in March 2023, expanded in July and published as an article titled "Forestalling an existential threat" in the November/December 2023 issue of the New Zealand International Review 

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The world today faces its grimmest chances to wake up to another world war not before too long unless Russia is defeated and punished. The primary causes of the wars in Georgia and in Ukraine have been the long-standing imperial ambitions of Russia being greedy for power and dominance: undermining sovereignty and self-determination of smaller states; aiming to redraw national borders to control at least as much as it once did; heedless about lives and human rights; spreading disinformation. Architects and executives of the contemporary world order bear their share of responsibility for letting it all happen. In the end, the chain of wars, if triggered by these two, may result in the collapse of the existing world order.

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