The war in Ukraine demonstrates that security concepts need to be rethought. Now the national security strategies must include not only the military component, but also economic and social aspects, director of the Institute of Political Studies and Social Capital based in Chernivtsi Marin Gherman stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency. According to the Ukrainian expert, in the event of a war, the civilizational, informational and linguistic components of a state are as important as military defense aspects.
Marin Gherman stated that Ukraine is much better prepared militarily today than it was at the beginning of the war. It is the Ukrainian military that ensures peace and security in Europe and, for this reason, the West has a moral duty to support Ukraine.
“Defense and survival has been Ukraine’s goal in these years and it succeeded. At the beginning of 2024, Ukraine is much better technically equipped, much better prepared. Ukraine now defends itself from air strikes, which was not the case at the beginning of 2022, when we saw how easily energy infrastructure was destroyed. The war in Ukraine is a serious violation of international law and the basis of foreign policy. From this perspective, it is a duty of the West and all states of the world to support Ukraine, which experiences a brutal attack and sees a serious violation of the UN charter by one of the members of the UN Security Council,” said Marin Gherman.
According to the expert, with the barbaric invasion of Ukraine, Russia has discredited itself internationally, becoming an isolated state that triesto maintain relations only with authoritarian countries. Since the outbreak of the war in his country, Russia has violated all previously signed international treaties.
“The demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine were the initial objective of the Russian Federation. Very amorphous notions. When we talk about Nazification, it is an ideological goal, in other words the coming to power of a regime loyal to Putin or the vassalization of Ukraine. This was Putin’s original goal. It did not succeed in any way. From the view point of image, Ukraine is still seen as a victim of the Russian Federation, a victim of a barbaric act of a state that, by the Budapest memorandum of 1994, pledged to ensure Ukraine’s security. Ukraine gave up its nuclear potential in 1994, and Russia and others undertook to defend it so that force against Ukraine wasn’t used. And Russia was not only been condemned at the level of the United Nations, but we also have an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin as a consequence of the war crimes committed by his military on the territory of Ukraine. We have a number of countries where Vladimir Putin will be arrested if he goes to them. We have a Putin isolated from the world, a Putin who is afraid to leave his country,” explained the director of the Institute of Political Studies and Social Capital based in Chernivtsi.
Marin Gherman also said that the war in Ukraine makes all states to change their national security strategies. The economic, energy, linguistic aspects are extremely important and they decide the developments in a war.
“Ukraine has managed to combat propaganda through direct political and legal methods. Television stations, radio stations, news websites promoting propaganda, social networks were closed. These things happened as a reaction to the war in Donbas and Crimea. Moscow sees that civilizationally, culturally, linguistically, informationally, Ukraine is increasingly distant from Russia. For this reason, it tried to gain influence over Ukraine through barbaric methods. The security concept needs to be rethought. Previously, we thought about security from the perspective of a tank, cannon or plane. Now we need to rethink the security concept from other points of view, including economic. Gas and electricity are a weapon. The church is a weapon. The linguistic situation in a country is also a weapon. Parties financed from abroad can also be a weapon,” stated Marin Gherman.
The public debate entitled “War and Peace in 2024” was the 298th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” which is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
