Alan Cafruny, the Henry Platt Bristol Chair of International Affairs and Professor of Government, recently presented a paper at the 30th Annual Conference of the EuroMemo. The theme of the conference, co-organized by University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna Group, was “Europe and the World Beyond the Polycrisis: Possible futures.”
In “The Atlantic Alliance and the War in Ukraine: Can the EU Exercise Strategic Autonomy?” Cafruny said that after more than 30 months and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers the war in Ukraine has reached a critical juncture.
“Neither the provision of progressively more advanced weapons to Ukraine nor intensified Western economic warfare in the form of sanctions and financial confiscation will compel Russia to accept a settlement based on Volodymyr Zelensky’s maximalist demands for a restoration of 1991 borders and NATO membership,” he said.
He noted that the European Union’s refusal to engage in a negotiated settlement of the war will only cause more death and destruction while accelerating its economic stagnation, loss of global credibility, and subordination to the U.S.
