Many of us never would have not guessed we would see a civil war in Ukraine in our lifetime. Much like the fall of the Berlin wall, the crumbling of the Communist bloc, the bitter war in the Balkans, there has been a failure of imagination and dread.
No more. I think the ones with the best analysis of the current situation tend to be those that have not studied the region for years. Perhaps some objectivity is needed when approaching the crumbling of a nation state. If you recognize that tribes and clans supersede national boundaries then you have little trouble understanding Libya, Syria, Iraq and now... Ukraine?
Do such loyalties really come before the modern nation state system? This is international relations theory according to Samuel Huntington and others. However, his work as far as I know stops from scrutinizing the Slavic regions apart from naming them as Slavic. I still think the ancient past calls to us, and the fact that Vikings made their way down the Dnieper river and essentially established Kyiv counts for something. What also counts is that there is a Donetsk clan as sure as there Shi'a muslims. The difference counts when modern men use ancient traditions and ties for their own power plays and purposes. It is what Viktor Yanukovich did in assuming the presidency, and it is what rebels in Donetsk are doing now.
No more. I think the ones with the best analysis of the current situation tend to be those that have not studied the region for years. Perhaps some objectivity is needed when approaching the crumbling of a nation state. If you recognize that tribes and clans supersede national boundaries then you have little trouble understanding Libya, Syria, Iraq and now... Ukraine?
Do such loyalties really come before the modern nation state system? This is international relations theory according to Samuel Huntington and others. However, his work as far as I know stops from scrutinizing the Slavic regions apart from naming them as Slavic. I still think the ancient past calls to us, and the fact that Vikings made their way down the Dnieper river and essentially established Kyiv counts for something. What also counts is that there is a Donetsk clan as sure as there Shi'a muslims. The difference counts when modern men use ancient traditions and ties for their own power plays and purposes. It is what Viktor Yanukovich did in assuming the presidency, and it is what rebels in Donetsk are doing now.
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