Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/December 2023/Book reviews




 * By Nick-D

This book covers pretty much what the title indicates: the implications for modern warfare arising from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was written by the British academic and military historian Sir Lawrence Freedman, whose commentary on the war in various formats has become fairly well known. The book forms part of a series of shortish book-length 'papers' published by the Australian Lowy Institute as Penguin Specials, and runs to 168 pages.

Freedman has produced what is probably the best work I've read on the war so far. His focus is largely on analysing the strategies and tactics used by both sides, but the book includes a useful summary of the war up to August 2023. A key observation is that Russia has employed ruthless total war approaches since the start of the war, while Ukraine and its allies have generally sought to wage a just war. Freedman argues convincingly that Russia's approach has been self-defeating, and has resulted in a war that neither side can bring to an end as a result (the Ukrainians are unable to compromise due to Russia's maximalist war aims and widespread atrocities and the Russian government is unable to back down due to the damage this would cause to Putin's regime).

Another interesting aspect of Freedman's analysis is that he largely disagrees with the common claims that the west has been too slow to expand the types of weapons provided to Ukraine, arguing instead that the gradual expansion of aid was necessary to avoid the risks of the war escalating into a direct conflict between Russia and NATO. Freedman concludes that Ukraine has the overall edge in the war due to its support from the west and resourcefulness, but it is unclear how or when the conflict will end given that neither side is capable of defeating the other.

Overall, this is a very useful work on this war and will be of interest to a wide audience.

Publishing details:

Various books