Peace & Security Podcasts. Episode 2. Andreas Schieder, war in Ukraine: the EU, the Global Progressive Forum and Austrian neutrality.

The invasion and military intervention of Russia in Ukraine raises the risk of a new war, including a nuclear war, in Europe. Putin stance is not only a criminal act, it is also a mistake: it is a back-clash from a common security balance based in trust building measures and international treaties, to the law of the most powerful. However, the U.S., Europe and NATO failed to involve Gorbaciov’ Russia in the building of a common security, geopolitical and economic cooperation in the post ’89. This created decline and resentment over the years, favored the surge of nationalistic and populistic stands which found in Putin a popular leader. Mitterand alerted us that “nationalism means war”. S we should have known better. In the same time, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, after 20 years of a mission that started as a counter-terrorism operation, evolved into a regime change operation and ended up as a nation-building exercise which failed and provoked intense questioning among allies. The most important message was, that the U.S. is leaving the era of trying to remake the world by force behind it. And rightly so: following the West hegemonic thinking, starting from the ’90 (the economic globalization times), to the 2001 global war on terror, most of the steps taken only provoked increased resentment and rejection worldwide.