Ukraine's Unnamed War: Before the Russian Invasion of 2022

Select format
Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Publication date:

15 January 2023

05 January 2023

ISBN:

9781009052924

9781316511497

9781009055949

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009052924

Dimensions:

(229 x 152 mm)

Weight & Pages:

0.56kg, 286 Pages

Dimensions:

(229 x 152 mm)

Weight & Pages:

0.43kg, 320 Pages

Subjects:: Russian and East European Government, Politics and Policy, Politics and International Relations, Comparative Politics

You may already have access via personal or institutional login

Selected: Digital

Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org

Subjects:: Russian and East European Government, Politics and Policy, Politics and International Relations, Comparative Politics

Information

Contents

Metrics

Accessibility

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has its roots in the events of 2013–2014. Russia cynically termed the seditionist conflict in Crimea and Eastern Donbas a 'civil war' in order to claim non-involvement. This flies in the face of evidence, but the authors argue that the social science literature on civil wars can be used help understand why no political solution was found between 2015 and 2022. The book explains how Russia, after seizing Crimea, was reacting to events it could not control and sent troops only to areas of Ukraine where it knew it would face little resistance (Eastern Donbas). Kremlin decisionmakers misunderstood the attachment of the Russian-speaking population to the Ukrainian state and also failed to anticipate that their intervention would transform Ukraine into a more cohesively 'Ukrainian' polity. Drawing on Ukrainian documentary sources, this concise book explains these important developments to a non-specialist readership.

‘The ‘unnamed war’ in this brilliantly argued, comprehensively researched, and historically accurate book began as a civil war within Ukraine primarily fought between factions of what Russia has long imagined as their world. From this perspective, Arel’s and Driscoll’s analytic model reveals missed opportunities for a fragile peace that might have avoided Russia’s imperialist invasion, where we can now envision only an endless war of attrition.’

David D. Laitin - Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

‘Contrary to explanations that emphasize the foreign origins of the war in Ukraine, Arel and Driscoll understand it instead through a logic of escalating violence, rooting it in significant part in domestic Ukrainian political dynamics. In doing so, they bring to light new aspects of the war and Moscow’s miscalculations leading up to its full-scale invasion in February 2022.’

Mark R. Beissinger - Henry W. Putnam Professor, Department of Politics, Princeton University

‘It is impossible to fully comprehend the onset and course of the full-scale Ukraine-Russia war that began with the Russian invasion in February 2022 without understanding the politics and violence that preceded it. Using a strategic action model as a guide, Arel and Driscoll’s Ukraine’s Unnamed War provides the definitive account of the Ukraine-Russia conflict from 2013–2021. Eschewing overgeneralization and writing with a style accessible to non-specialists, the authors show, in detail, how the decisions, agency, and identity of local Ukrainian actors prevented a political solution and developed the conditions that would spark a major conventional war in Europe.’

Roger Petersen - Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

‘In the heat of the devastating war in Ukraine, Arel and Driscoll have given us a cool and courageous account of the complex and fraught prehistory of Putin's invasion. Their argument is the most compelling account of how a civil war in a divided country turned into a hot war between two neighbouring states.’

Ronald Grigor Suny - William H. Sewell, Jr. Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of History and Emeritus Professor of Political Science, The University of Michigan, and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History, The University of Chicago

‘This is no ‘instant book’ churned out to provide urgently needed information, though it certainly contains important facts, but rather a substantive study reflecting long-term research on Ukraine and the surrounding region. … Recommended.’

T. P. Johnson Source: Choice

‘This book makes a significant academic contribution to shaping a political vision of postwar Ukraine based on intra-Ukrainian compromise. Although the main readership, according to the authors, is a non-specialist audience, I would recommend this insightful theoretically and empirically rich book mainly to policymakers and researchers interested in Ukrainian politics, identity and memory politics, studies of nationalism, post-Soviet studies and other relevant fields.’

Yana Volkova Source: Europe-Asia Studies

‘Arel and Driscoll have written a book that is invaluable for both its insights into the war in Ukraine itself as well as the applicability of its theories and concepts to other recent conflicts where the lines between civil and international war are so often blurred.’

Douglas J. Cremer Source: The European Legacy

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Ukraine's Unnamed War

Before the Russian Invasion of 2022

This Book has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref.

Book description

Reviews

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Contents

Ukraine’s Unnamed War
pp i-ii

Ukraine’s Unnamed War - Title page
pp iii-iii

Copyright page
pp iv-iv

Contents
pp v-v

Figures
pp vi-vi

Maps
pp vii-vii

Tables
pp viii-viii

Acknowledgments
pp ix-xii

1 - A War Within the “Russian World”
pp 1-22

2 - A Theory of War Onset in Post-Soviet Eurasia
pp 23-45

3 - Before Maidan
pp 46-66

4 - Regime Change (Maidan)
pp 67-99

5 - Irredentist Annexation (Crimea)
pp 100-120

6 - “The Russian Spring” (Eastern Ukraine)
pp 121-144

7 - The War and Russian Intervention (Donbas)
pp 145-170

8 - A Frozen Conflict Thaws
pp 171-197

Appendix A - Formalizing a Story of Strategic Ukrainian Adaptation
pp 198-210

Appendix B - Formalizing a Story of Why Putin Chose War
pp 211-213

References
pp 214-263

Index
pp 264-273

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

Accessibility Information

Ukraine's Unnamed War

Before the Russian Invasion of 2022

This Book has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref.

Book description

Reviews

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save content to

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

Accessibility Information