Wars: ‘Never again,’ again

I am sometimes asked what keeps me awake at night.

- RADOSŁAW SIKORSKI

The answer is relatively simple. It is the fear that the postwar international order—shaped by memories of World War II and the trauma of the Holocaust, and built on the foundation of political compromise, respect for other countries’ sovereignty, free markets, civil liberties, and the protection of minorities—may collapse.“Never again,” the promise and ambition not to repeat the mistakes that led to the tragedy of WWII, has for decades shaped international institutions and security policy. But now, this motto's sobering influence has waned. Flashpoints are erupting around the world, from the threat of US military intervention in Venezuela, the brutal civil war in Sudan, and the continuous instability in the Middle East, to the war in Ukraine and the growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

All these crises have global implications.

In the face of these myriad emergencies, it is no surprise that the West, broadly understood, is contending with its greatest challenge in decades. At the root of this challenge lies a sense of civilizational exhaustion, of which our adversaries have taken notice, confident that their time has come.

But has it? More than 1,350 days have passed since Russia launched its three-day “special military operation”—its illegal and unprovoked war of aggression—against Ukraine. At least 1.5 million Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have been wounded or killed in the fighting since then, more than a thousand per day. Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime, and it alone, bears full responsibility for this heavy toll.