Subversion is a “menace that spreads in the shadows…it secretly infiltrates and adversary’s society and institutions, manipulating, weakening, and disintegrating them from within” (2). Lennart Maschmeyer’s new book provides a theory of how subversion works, what its limitations are, and how it changes with technology. Maschmeyer frames subversion as an instrument of power that is…
Tag: Russia-Ukraine war
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 120: Parker on Ryan, The War for Ukraine
Mick Ryan, a retired major general in the Australian Army, has written an excellent book on the Ukraine war and its implication for future warfare.[1] The first part of The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire focuses on 2022, when the Russian Army failed to take Kiev and retreated from the Kharkov area….
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-17 on Lonergan and Lonergan, Escalation Dynamics in Cyberspace
Although for over a quarter century an increasing number of states have acquired and used cyber capabilities, and cyberspace has become an increasingly important arena for international security interaction, far too many national intelligence and defense scholars, practitioners, and policymakers have sidestepped its vital role, either claiming that the technical barriers to entry are too…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Commentary III-1: Did Boris Johnson Prevent an Early End to the War in Ukraine?
Winston Churchill was his hero and becoming British prime minister himself was Boris Johnson’s ultimate dream.[1] Yet once he became prime minister in July 2019, Johnson’s performance was rather disappointing. Relations with the European Union (EU) over Brexit became ever more poisonous and Johnson’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic was highly inept, eventually leading to…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Commentary II-7 on the UK’s Response to Russia’s War against Ukraine
February 24th 2022 marks the beginning of a new dark era in European and international security. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is the latest manifestation of Russia as a threat to both international security and the liberal word order that began with the Russian-Georgian war in August 2008 and continued with Russia’s annexation of Crimea…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Policy Roundtable III-3: Ukraine and Nuclear Weapons
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Ukraine’s remarkable resistance to Russian aggression have triggered reams of analysis.[1] Perhaps no aspect of the war in Ukraine has sparked more discussion—particularly among American observers and analysts—than the nuclear dimension of the conflict and the extent to which Russian and American nuclear weapons are affecting…