Russia's 2022 War against Ukraine and the Foreign Policy Reaction of the EU: Context, Diplomacy, and Law.

• Author: Boyraz,, Haci Mehmet

By Luigi Lonardo

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, xiii + 87 pages, $50, ISBN: 9783031186936

Luigi Lonardo's, Russia's 2022 War Against Ukraine and the Foreign Policy Reaction of the EU: Context, Diplomacy, and Law, is one of the earliest publications that offers an evaluation of the way the EU has strategically reacted to Russia's war against Ukraine

The book consists of three main chapters, each of which is written in an article format. In other words, each chapter contains an abstract, keywords, introduction, analysis section and conclusion. In this respect, it is possible to say that the book consists of three compiled articles. As a matter of fact, the last two chapters of the book are the expanded and updated versions of two different articles published by the author in the past.

Looking at the content, it should be firstly highlighted that the book focuses on the previous EU-Ukraine relations, the effects of Russia's 2022 war against Ukraine on the EU, and the EU's reactions to the war. It should be noted right away that the author focuses not on the long-running Russia-Ukraine war, but specifically on Russia's so-called 'special military operation,' which started in February 2022. Moreover, as Lonardo clearly defines, he has two interrelated arguments in this research. That the initial and weak reactions of the EU were shaped by military dependence on the U.S. and NATO, and high-level energy dependence on Russia is the first argument. That reactions of the EU to the war were not revolutionary in terms of its political and legal structure despite the revolutionary rhetoric and inflated tones of EU institutions (e.g. "Putin has crossed the red line") is the second argument. Lonardo also criticizes that the EU lacked a strategic vision to overcome these aforementioned constraints until the war.

In the Introduction, Lonardo first provides an evaluation of the war Russia launched against Ukraine, and then touches on the book's topic, research questions, arguments, and chapters. Later, Lonardo mainly examines why and how the war broke out in the first chapter. According to him, the main reason for Russia's aggressive foreign policy towards Ukraine is mostly based on historical and ideological foundations. He argues that those who advocate that Ukraine was always a historical part of Russia did not welcome Ukraine's close relations with NATO and the EU in the post-Cold War era. For this reason, Russia built its grand strategy on not losing...