Conflicts in the Ex-Soviet Space: An Updated Assessment
On October 3, 2023, the Guarini Institute for Public Affairs and Temple University hosted a joint event called “Conflicts in the Ex-Soviet Space: An Updated Assessment.” This event featured two different lectures entitled “Russia’s War in Ukraine and the Euro-Atlantic Debate” by Owen Matthews and “Drones and the Changing Face of War: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Clash Over Nagorno-Karabakh” by Robert Bruce Adolph.
To introduce the topics of the evening, JCU Professor and Director of the Guarini Institute for Public Affairs Federigo Argentieri spoke about the history of the Soviet Union and connected it to conflicts in the area today. In his introduction, Professor Argentieri talked about how ex-soviet nations were left with many problems following the collapse of the Soviet Union. These problems still affect the area today and have led to many conflicts, including the current war between Russia and Ukraine. Professor Argentieri discussed how the Ukraine-Russian conflict was a result of the reckoning of centuries of misunderstandings. Ukraine disputes that Russia is the legitimate heir to “everything Eastern Slavic,” which created tension between the two countries. These tensions, along with some other factors, led to the current war.
Owen Matthews was previously the Moscow and Istanbul Bureau Chief of Newsweek magazine and has great knowledge on conflicts in Bosnia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq, Georgia, and Eastern Ukraine. He began his lecture by posing the question: “Was NATO to blame for instigating the war in Ukraine?” Throughout his presentation, Matthews dove into a deep analysis to address this question. He drew a parallel between two Russian beliefs that led to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The first is Russia’s imperial greatness and restoration ideals. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has been determined to prove itself to be the greatest country and has wanted to restore the full extent of their power over the world. On the other hand, Russia has a strong fear that the West is trying to undermine the country through NATO. The Kremlin is convinced that the west is systematically undermining Russia to conduct a regime change. According to Matthews, Ukraine as a country doesn’t matter to Russia, what matters is that it is the current “border” between Russia and the United States.
Towards the end of his lecture, Matthews circled back to the question he had posed at the beginning. Realistically, NATO is not to blame for instigating the war in Ukraine because it had no intention of undermining Russia since it isn’t an aggressive organization. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin was convinced of the opposite, so in his mind, the answer to that question may be different.
Robert Bruce Adolph is a retired Army senior Special Forces soldier and UN security chief. During his presentation, he used the Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan to explain the evolution and threat of drones in warfare. Azerbaijan was able to win the war so quickly because of the use of Kamikaze drones that can attack enemies without human control. These Kamikaze drones fly above the battlefield and look for enemies through heat radars. As soon as they spot a target that matches the specific criteria they are looking for, they immediately dive down to attack that person within seven seconds.
Robert Adolph shared photos and discussed different types of drones that have functions ranging from collecting intelligence on the battlefield, to delivering bombs, to scanning facial features to target one specific person. He spoke about how the introduction of drones to warfare poses a huge threat to society because of how cheap and effective they can be. There are so many different types of drones that have varying purposes, they are changing the way that wars are fought. Robert Adolph spoke about his fear and prediction that drones are going to turn war into a video game. Someone across the world can control a drone thousands of miles away on a battlefield. He ended his lecture by warning the audience about the large threat that drones pose and what impact they may have in the years to come.
(Hayley Nowak)
