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The War in Ukraine & the Future of the World

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The War in Ukraine & the Future of the World

Yuval Noah Harari,

5 min read
3 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

How will Ukraine’s identity and current struggle influence democracy in the world?

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Editorial Rating

8

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Recommendation

This illuminating roundtable discussion among noted historians Yuval Noah Harari, Timothy Snyder and Anne Applebaum, and with Ukrainian MP Yegor Chernev, features important insights on the conflict in Ukraine and its implications for the future of democracy. The participants take particular note that, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the paths Ukraine and Russia have taken have radically diverged, and that, as the conflict drags on, Ukraine’s identity as a sovereign nation has only grown stronger.

Summary

Vladimir Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine aren’t based in reality.

Putin claims that Ukraine has always been a territory of Russia and does not have a distinct national identity. But Ukrainians are descended from the Vikings, and history has been forging Ukraine’s identity ever since. Modern Ukraine is a nation born of a long struggle for independence.

Putin’s narrative is that Ukrainians are just Russians who want to rejoin Russia but are being thwarted by a cabal of Nazis in charge of the Ukrainian government. He assumed that his forces would occupy Ukraine easily and that Ukrainians would welcome the invasion, “throwing flowers on the Russian tanks.” Instead, the Ukrainian military...

About the Speakers

Anne Applebaum is a historian whose books include Twilight of Democracy and Red Famine. Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University and the author of Bloodlands and The Road to Unfreedom. Yuval Noah Harari is a historian and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His books include Sapiens and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Yegor Chernev is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament who is currently fighting in the Ukrainian army.

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