Geographical Contributions to Understanding and Resolving the Russo- Ukraine Conflict

Abstract

The war in Ukraine poses an exceptionally dangerous risk of major escalation by design, accident or miscalculation. However, the causes and drivers of the war are far from exceptional, being struggles over how to imagine, name, organize, and control space at local, regional (subnational), national and international scales. Advocating a geography that is “for peace,” this article uses a transscalar conception of how conflict and peace are interrelated within states and internationally. Analyzing a number of key Russian government speeches and legal texts, it identifies major political geographical elements of the conflict and, drawing on comparative examples, proposes creative ways in which they might be addressed as part of negotiations.

La Guerra de Gaza: cómo el lenguaje de destrucción sobre Israel y los palestinos pasa por alto la tragedia más amplia del Estado-nación

“…Sin embargo, en todo el mundo, esta combinación rara vez se ha producido sin una limpieza étnica masiva, intercambios de población, supresión de los derechos de las minorías, etc. (véase, por ejemplo, Wade, 2024; y en este número de la revista, Megoran, 2024). Nuestro ídolo político tiene los pies de barro (Cocks, 2014;Agnew, 2021).…”

Is the Ukraine War a Territorial Dispute? Geographical Contributions to Understanding and Resolving the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict

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Making sense of the Ukraine war: Geographers should not be afraid of geography

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