On Thursday, March 30, the Strauss Center, the Clements Center for National Security and Law, the UT-Austin History Department, the Center for European Studies, and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies hosted Stephen Kotkin, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, for a talk on “Stalin, World War, and Today’s World.”

Dr. Kotkin stressed the question of how peace is won. A conversation he noted was one that has not been occurring. Using examples from WWII, Dr. Kotkin stated how the war in Ukraine has become a war of attrition, noting how such wars are only won when the enemy’s will to fight and ability to fight are both neutralized. The problem with Ukraine, according to Dr. Kotkin, is that while the West is currently supplying Ukraine’s ability to fight, Russia’s ability and will still haven’t been dealt with. Thus, the West r has been trying to win a war of attrition with “both of its hands tied behind its back” due to how production lines have been at capacity, along with a whole lot of logistical issues. War is logistics, something that has to continue to be prioritized in the ongoing conflict. Dr. Kotkin ended his talk by discussing a way to possibly achieve peace in Ukraine, emphasizing the fact that no end to the conflict can happen without there being a mechanism to incentivize Russia not to invade again. The concept of achieving and maintaining an “enduring peace” was the prime objective of Dr. Kotkin’s argument.

Biography

Stephen Kotkin is the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.  He is also the John P. Birkelund Professor of History and International Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University.  He directs the Hoover History Lab at Stanford.  He is working on his trilogy’s final volume, Stalin: Totalitarian Superpower, 1941-1990s.

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