Thinking the War From the End: Insights for the War Against Ukraine

Observers of the Russian war against Ukraine are currently seeking to understand how it will end. What would victory or defeat look like for either side? What concessions would make for an appropriate ​“compromise”?

At the project outset, there is a low likelihood of negotiations that could lead to a formal peace agreement. But as the war persists, legal, political and humanitarian challenges will be intensifying for both sides. In the context of highly politicized debates, it is thus worth examining what conditions have caused previous wars to end, and whether these hold any lessons for the Russo-Ukrainian war.

To think the war against Ukraine in terms of a politically sustainable end, this project will study perspectives from (1) international law, (2) peacekeeping and (3) global stakeholders. The GPPi project team will be analyzing how Russia and Ukraine themselves, along with select third-party countries, envision the end state of Russia’s war of aggression. The key question the project aims to answer is: how do ideas of peace influence the path to ending war?

The project is funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF) and implemented in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Helmut Aust (Free University Berlin), Dr. Cindy Wittke (University of Regensburg), Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Rainer Glatz, Col. Alexander Hug, Dr. Iryna Solonenko (LibMod), and partners in Ukraine.

For more information, please contact Andreas Heinemann-Grüder.