Perceptions of War

Events of 2014 in Ukraine created international crisis of such scale and magnitude that it not only brought back talks about Cold war, but also pushed Western countries and Russia to the brink of real war. Politicians in the Western capitals reluctantly accepted the fact that this time Russia started new and more serious geopolitical game and are cautious when talking about military measures. Quite the opposite mood you will find in the Central Eastern European countries. Suddenly in March 2014 citizens of the Baltic States realized how fragile is their wellbeing and the existence of the independence. The Ukrainian events pushed all tensions in the region to a totally another, more frightening level. One of the reasons, why such disagreements and misunderstandings between Western and Central Eastern European, including Russia, prevail is a fundamental difference in understanding of war. Simply put: when hearing word war average American or Brit gives a different meaning to it than Pole, Lithuanian or Russian. In the West war is understood instrumentally and in eastern part of Europe it has clear existential meaning. In the former war is seen like an instrument, which is controlled, limited by the politics, while in the later it is perceived as existential, waging a social and moral catharsis. In the West the liberal interpretation of the ideas of C. von Clausewitz shapes the understanding and debates about the nature and character of war. The best known expression of such understanding is the notion that war is a continuation of war by other means. In such tradition war is seen as instrumental, a tool in the service of politics/ war does not have an autonomy, it is controllable (best authority on such interpretation are M. Howard, P. Paret). At the same time another strand of liberal thought strengthened this instrumental understanding of war in the direct meaning of it. The technologies, computerisation, digitalization of warfare literally creates impression of instrumental way of war, because it becomes a habit to associate war with machines, for instance, drones. All this pushed us to the condition when we start talking about disappearance of war as human thing, loss of warrior soul, post-heroic times. While others start talking about virtual, spectator sport warfare, spectacle, which must be consumed. At the same time understanding of war in Central Eastern Europe and Russia is quite different. It is heavily historicised and largely spins around the notions of warrior nations. In other words, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians see war on existential, not instrumental terms. It is through the lenses of war we define what it means to be Lithuanian, Russian and what Lithuanian, Russian state is. It seems that the key to such understanding of war is German tradition of historiography, known as the primacy of foreign policy (Primat der Außenpolitik), which emphasized political history and importance of war.