Putin’s Last War III

Connections, the journal of the Partnership for Peace Consortium (PfPC), invites submissions for its upcoming third special edition on Ukraine. Although, the conflict is far from over, now is the time to start conceptualizing various possible endings and the eventual post-war situation.

The eradication of the Ukrainian nation was conceptually prepared by Moscow’s morose dabbling at historiography, demographically by the simplification of adoption laws, politico-pedagogically by the publication of a manifesto on the Ukrainian problem and a manual on and training in the digging of mass graves. Despite the clear writings on the wall, Putin's nefarious war scheme hit Ukraine’s unprepared government very hard. Kyiv would have likely been captured and Ukraine occupied in its entirety - pushed back Heim ins Reich - were it not for the rapid response of volunteers and civic defense associations.

Although Moscow’s plan appears to be failing, substantive parts of Ukraine’s population and territory have been destroyed. The armed forces of both sides are suffering massive casualties, while the economically ruinous Putin regime is neither exhibiting the knowledge nor the will to end the war.

With hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians dead, millions exiled and many more – including children - physically and psychologically maimed and dying for the freedom of their homeland, the survivors will require economic, socio-political programs. The territory itself will require rehabilitation as well. The amount of contaminated and mined territory in Ukraine is unprecedented and will require concerted international efforts. Over 30% of the arable land of Ukraine, still in the absence of a convincing cadaster system, now belongs to Russian and Chinese state and opaque other consortia, mostly operating out of EU-Cyprus, with heavy Russian oligarch participation.

Public declarations, interpretable as promises of rapid accession to European and Transatlantic institutions, fade in the light of conditionalities writ small: both NATO and EU accession entail protracted, supervised, instructed, and successfully implemented processes of conception, institutional and value assimilation. The contradictions imminent in Ukrainian society and its form of government will then come to the fore and civil servants must excel in transparency and accountability. Ukraine will need to regain, confirm, expand its economic activities, ideally as part of an integrated market to which it may finally gain access. 

Since Ukraine requires massive humanitarian and defense support now, it is prudent to assume further assistance will be needed after the war. It is also foreseeable that Ukraine will have much to offer and teach in regard to battlefield operations, societal resilience and Russian criminal war culture. In this third volume of Connections QJ on the Kremlin's War against Ukraine the editors propose to look into what needs to be done now and in the aftermath of the war.

Potential authors will be invited to focus on certain issues such as:

• War crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
• War-time and traditional corruption.
• Rehabilitation, dealing with psychological and medical consequences of the war.
• Ecocide, decontamination, demining, rehabilitation of the environment.
• Rebuilding the economy
• Replenishing Ukraine’s demographics
• Policy options for a post-war defense and security posture
• European and Transatlantic cooperation and integration
• Reconstruction of critical infrastructure
• Informational Warfare – lessons learned
• The role and future of private military corporations
• Reforms of Ukraine’s judicial system, military legislative system, parliamentary impunity reform
• Digitalization and cyber security
• Impunity of Russian agents in allied states

Connections is a peer-reviewed publication. Articles are unclassified, and readers can access the open-source articles from all over the world. The journal is published in English and then translated and published in Russian, in order to increase its coverage and impact.

Articles should be original manuscripts in the range of 3,000 to 6,000 words, in the English language, written in a lucid and clear style for a target audience of informed defense and security affairs practitioners, and academics.

Articles need to be submitted not later than November 2023. The expected publication for this issue is Spring 2024.

Additional author guidance is available on the Connections website at https://connections-qj.org/guide-authors

Submitted manuscripts will undergo a rigorous peer-review process to ensure the quality and relevance of the contributions. Articles will also undergo a military prepublication review, to prevent the publication of classified or sensitive information.

For inquiries and submission-related matters, please contact pfpcpublications2@marshallcenter.org         

We look forward to receiving your proposed article.