«War is hell for anyone in it. And it’s a predictable but regrettable call to arms for people with opinions who aren’t. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, as the fighting on the ground has escalated, so has the volley of opinions about the war. And for Eastern European scholars like us, it’s galling to watch the unending stream of Western scholars and pundits condescend to explain the situation in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, often in ways that either ignore voices from the region, treating it as an object rather than a subject of history, or claiming to perfectly understand Russian logic and motives.» – In their article «The American Pundits Who Can’t Resist “Westsplaining” Ukraine» published at New Republic Jan Smoleński and Jan Dutkiewicz criticize John Mearsheimer and other foreign policy experts for treating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine like a risk game. They draw attention to the phenomenon of ‘Westsplaining’ that ignores Eastern European history and the perspective of the Eastern Europeans, and it selectively omits facts on the ground about NATO expansion. They argue that in the westsplaining framework, the concerns of Russia are recognized but those of Eastern Europe are not.
Read more: https://newrepublic.com/article/165603/carlson-russia-ukraine-imperialism-nato