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How the west brought war to ukraine

UNDERSTANDING HOW U.S. AND NATO POLICIES LED TO CRISIS, WAR, AND THE RISK OF NUCLEAR CATASTROPHE

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PUBLISHED REVIEWS

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UKRAINE WAR?

Washington and the mainstream media assert that Vladimir Putin is a Hitler-like expansionist who invaded Ukraine in an unprovoked land grab. If you disagree—or even if you are unsure—you may be called “Putin’s puppet” or a “dupe of the Kremlin.”

In this book, I present the other side of the story. I show that Russia’s invasion is best understood as a response to misguided and provocative Western policies, especially to the encroachment of U.S. and NATO forces on Russia’s borders. Had the shoe been on the other foot—had Russia acted toward the U.S the way the U.S acted toward Russia—Washington would have gone to war, too.

This book tells the story that Washington and its allies—the Western politicians and military strategists who helped cause this catastrophe—do not want you to hear.

VIDEO AND AUDIO OF THE AUTHOR

Play Video
Is Western support for the Ukraine war "humanitarian"?
(2 minutes 20 seconds)
Play Video
Does Ukraine have a "right" to join NATO?
(2 minutes 18 seconds)

About the author

Benjamin Abelow is an American citizen who believes that U.S. and NATO policies are causing great harm to Ukraine, Europe, the United States, and the Global South. He previously worked in Washington, DC, on nuclear arms issues. He has a B.A. in European history from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.D. from the Yale School of Medicine, where he also served as Lecturer in Medicine. His other areas of interest include the study of trauma, including war trauma.

Abelow has been interviewed on multiple Apple-listed podcasts and appeared on Italian, Slovenian, and Russian television. He has debated the chairman of the political science department at Swarthmore College and discussed his book with students attending the Williams College Summer Institute in American Foreign Policy. To date, his book has been translated into German, Italian, Polish, Danish and Slovenian, with French and Dutch translations forthcoming. Figures across the political spectrum have tweeted about the book, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (progressive) and the British intellectual Peter Hitchens (conservative).

Abelow can be reached at b.abelow.2022@gmail.com.

How the West Brought War to Ukraine is Available From!

To read the English edition free online in essay format, click here.
To download a free PDF of the German translation (without the endnotes), click here.

Q & A

Q: Does this book defend the Russian invasion?

A: My goal is not to defend the invasion but to explain why it happened. Most American citizens have heard a sugarcoated explanation of how this war came about. This explanation is one-sided and simplistic. It says that the West is all good and Russia is all evil. I try to balance that account. The truth can be painful, but it is nonetheless essential—because if you don’t diagnose a problem correctly, you won’t be able to find a solution.

Q: Isn’t our involvement in the war a humanitarian effort?

A: The war has been portrayed as a humanitarian endeavor but it is actually a humanitarian disaster. The war is destroying Ukraine, killing and maiming tens of thousands of Ukrainians, and displacing millions. And the longer the war goes on, the worse things will get. Even a Western victory likely would destroy Ukraine. Such a “victory” almost certainly would require a long, bloody, highly destructive war fought on Ukrainian territory with tremendous loss of Ukrainian life, both of soldiers and civilians. Further, the war carries an unacceptable risk of going nuclear, and that could be the ultimate catastrophe. A nuclear war could kill hundreds of millions or even billions of people.

Q: What is the solution?

A: The best solution is a rapidly negotiated settlement. This solution is far from perfect, but it is much better than an ongoing war. There is a reason diplomacy is often called the “art of the possible.” We live in the real world, with real constraints. We must recognize that fact. Neither side is going to come away entirely satisfied but at least the destruction of Ukraine will be limited and the world will not be subject to the risk of nuclear war.
To read a full interview with the author about the Ukraine war, click here

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