On Thursday February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Although there had been a steady drumbeat of warnings that this invasion was imminent, the war that followed was still a jarring reminder of the evils of war, of an event that felt out of place and time, a twentieth-century war unfold in a twenty-first century context. For a time, it was possible to think such a conflict could not emerge in our highly interconnected and interdependent world. It was particularly striking to see such a war in Europe, where our present interconnectedness emerged, in part, from the ashes of two world wars—conflicts which taught us, we thought, to never again fight in such a way.
Seeing our failure to learn the lessons of history has been, I must admit, a cause for some despair, as I have asked myself: what can we do, as individuals, at moments like this? How much power does the American or Russian citizen have to stop a war when the forces of illiberalism seem bent on waging one? It is incredible to think that all this destruction has been wrought by the choices of such a small number of people—really, by the choices of one man, motivated by abstract notions of imperial glory and resentment for how the world changed over 30 years ago.
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