Thread by @bctallis

This year has changed so much
- & changed so many of us.

#Russia's War & #Ukraine's heroic resistance have had a clarifying effect:
- what's right & what's wrong
- what matters & what doesn't
- what we have to do & what we shouldn't.

🧵on To Ukraine With Love 1/

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We've been inspired by Ukrainians' courage, ingenuity & humour in adversity
- & galvanised by #Ukraine's fight in our common war.

🇺🇦We've lost friends along the way, but made many new ones.

🇺🇦We've sought new ways to think & act
- & found them. 2/
amazon.com/Ukraine-Love-E…

When #Russia invaded #Ukraine, again, the stakes became higher - & more starkly apparent.

Even for those of us who had followed the situation closely for years, this was a step change that needed a response at every level.
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For me, it crystallised & 🔥seriously accelerated🔥 a process that had already started the previous year.
- to make a more direct impact & clearer contribution.
⏩not only via the (policy) research, analysis & advice that are my main profession concerns
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⏩But also through my writing & public communication.
- In pieces on 🇪🇺#strategicautonomy (a dangerous myth) & #Germany's new coalition government 🇩🇪I'd already started writing more freely & directly than I had before.

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The urgency of the situation & the possibility to use my professional experience (20 years on European foreign & security policy, research, practice, analysis) & and expertise (esp on EU-Ukraine relations) to influence the situation for the better was a personal liberation. 6/

I set about providing ways to understand & interpret the conflict and its context:

🎯- to get beyond the flow of events while keeping their effects firmly in mind.

💎- to embrace & express rather than eschew the moral clarity of the situation

7/

For states too it's been a year of reckoning & re-evaluation. Putting other issues aside (for now), some governments responded quickly & well (US, UK & especially #NCEE - e.g. 🇨🇿🇪🇪 🇱🇻🇱🇹🇵🇱🇫🇮)
- others dithered or, worse, denied #Ukraine their full support. 8/

Yet, gradually & then suddenly at various points of the year, the materiel arrived.
- NLAWS & Javelins in January helped defend Kyiv but couldn't prevent the war crimes at #Bucha.
- #Tanks & Howitzers in showed the way in Spring but couldn't prevent the massacre at #Mariupol
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It was that tragedy that paved the way for the #HIMARS of Summer
[Note-#Ukraine must not have to wait for *another* massacre, another slaughter, another outrage to get the weapons they need - as it has so far -credit @MSkrypchenko & team at the TransAtlantic Dialogue Centre] 10/

Not least b/c 🇺🇦is so effective when properly armed.
The trickle of #heavyweapons became a torrent which #Ukraine used to flush #Russia's occupying forces out of #Kharkiv & #Kherson
- it has not yet become the flood needed to sweep🇷🇺 clean out of Ukraine.
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We continue to provide #airdefence in a piecemeal fashion as #Russia chips away at lives, infrastructure & livelihoods.
- We've not given enough #tanks & #IFVs to make the decisive difference (as openly requested by #Ukraine)
economist.com/zaluzhny-profi…
/12

Meanwhile for all the big steps forward #Germany has made (especially sending Gepards if not MBTs),
Olaf Scholz talks of needing to avoid a new Cold War rather than focusing on winning the hot one we've got.
foreignaffairs.com/germany/olaf-s…
/13

Emmanuel Macron talks of #Russia (!) needing security guarantees instead of offering #Ukraine the only meaningful security guarantee that would create stability in the region
#NATO Membership as pushed by e.g. @ToniHofreiter & other forward thinkers /14
nytimes.com/2022/12/04/wor…

And yet, still Ukraine resists and Ukrainians go on
- & so must we,
- we must go on with our support & our own participation in the conflict
- now, as at so many crucial points, we can influence public opinion & political decisions for the better
15/

The essays collected in my new book show various aspects of my efforts in this regard - to use expertise for clear purpose. To analyse events in context. To provide prisms through which to interpret the war, why it matters and how we can win. /16
amazon.de/-/en/Benjamin-…

My work this year has been driven to a greater extent than before by learning through, engagement & support on social media - especially here on Twitter.
It's here that many of us have found each other & built community through common purpose.
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Our drive to help #Ukraine win, to defeat #Russia, stand up to trolls, cynics and paddlers of disinformation has brought us together.
It impels us to take back social media for democracy & do better individually & collectively as liberals & democrats in the broadest sense. /18

One of the positive revelations of this year has been the demand that exists on Twitter & elsewhere for quality & in-depth expert analysis - I've learned so much from so many experts on here.
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I've tried to contribute myself as well with threads on #Ukraine, the #EU, #Germany #CEE, the #VisaBan and more.
Your response has been overwhelming tbh.
- It's provided the encouragement, the spirit & energy to go about the world of changing minds & policies.
/20

It is with this energy I'll continue to go about that work through research, analysis, explanation & communication - via Twitter Threads, Op-Eds, on broadcast media, expert and public debate or private advice to decision makers.

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