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/

wiki image Image
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.
3/
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
4/
⏩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.

5/
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
9/
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/ Image
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.
11/
We continue to provide #airdefence in a piecemeal fashion as #Russia chips away at lives, infrastructure & livelihoods.
- We've not given enough to make the decisive difference (as openly requested by #Ukraine)
300 MBTs, 600-700 APCs, 500 Artillery
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.
/17

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.
/19
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.

/21
My book is explicitly dedicated to #Ukraine & especially to the Ukrainians who resourcefulness, heroism and wit have saved hope for us all, shown us what matters & how to fight for it when threatened ... BUT ...
/22
It is also dedicated to all of you who make yup the community of support for #Ukraine, opposition to #Russia & who offer us all the hope of a free and democratic future.
None of this was on my bingo card for this year-but I'm so happy it happened (#NAFO & more)
/23 ImageImageImageImage
-Yes Ukraine endures
-Yes heavy weapons delivered
-Yes funds raised
-Yes #Ukraine has a future in the #EU
-Yes we welcomed refugees
-Yes we are getting off Russian gas

/24
The essays in this book help chart what we've achieved & show new ways we can do more together in future.
I hope they provide the lenses & arguments to win hearts & change minds in the service of our common causes- & raise some money among the way./END
amazon.co.uk/Ukraine-Love-E…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Benjamin Tallis 🇺🇦

Benjamin Tallis 🇺🇦 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @bctallis

Dec 19
As some of you have asked
- showing you haven't (yet) got the book ...

What is the image on the cover of
'To #Ukraine With Love?'

Short🧵(no, really) 1/9
amazon.de/-/en/Benjamin-…
It's a detail from a photo I took in 2007 of the Soviet-era war memorial in #Lviv, one of my favourite cities in #Ukraine. The monument had just been re-dedicated “to the victors over Nazism” rather than its original “to the glory of the Soviet Army.”
2/9
uma.lvivcenter.org/en/photos/3632
I took the image during a layover on the journey back from Odesa to Prague after I quit in dissatisfaction from the #EU Mission to Moldova and #Ukraine (EUBAM) where I had worked for most of the last 2 years.
That story's told in my other book (2023)
3/9
amazon.co.uk/Identities-Bor…
Read 9 tweets
Dec 18
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/

wiki image Image
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.
3/
Read 21 tweets
Dec 18
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/

wiki image Image
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.
3/
Read 21 tweets
Dec 15
OK, it’s on!

To #Ukraine With Love
Essays on #Russia’s War & #Europe’s Future

- is now out on @amazon Paperback and #Kindle

➡️a short(ish) thread of thanks
- & promotion as 📖 raises awareness &💰for 🇺🇦.

(UK order link below
others follow in🧵).

amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0BPW9…
So what is the book about?

- it collects a lot of my Essays, Interviews, Op-Eds & Analytical Commentaries for media & think tanks from Dec 21 - Dec 22

& adds ➕➕➕

amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0BPQ7…
➡️ a brand new #Longread piece
‘The New Idealism’

- the deepest development of #NeoIdealism so far as an emerging approach to #grandstrategy & #internationalrelations.

- what is Neo-Idealism (& why the name?) & who are the Neo-Idealists.

#Ukraine
amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0BPQ7…
Read 28 tweets
Nov 16
We don’t, yet, know what caused the deadly explosion in #Przewodow #Poland & should not jump to conclusions.
BUT, there are several important things to consider.

1. This would not have happened if we had earlier given #Ukraine the means to defeat #Russia & end the war.
2. If this were an ‘accident’ then it only confirms that in #Russia, we are dealing with a dangerously reckless & incompetent regime which cuts margins too fine. They must be contained & deterred more strongly - to not take such risks.

#Przewodow #Poland
3. If it were the result of a partial intercept of a Russian missile by a Ukrainian SAM then we have to ask what that Russian missile was aimed at- where was it heading? Likely targets - civilian populations, critical infrastructure (road, rail, EU-UA power grid connections?)
Read 9 tweets
Nov 10
I respect the authors of this piece, but I think they've got this badly wrong on #Ukraine, #Russia - in terms of both what should & what is likely to happen.

Rather than a trilemma it is really a No-lemma (as @berlin_bridge almost called it). Short 🧵/1
ip-quarterly.com/en/nuclear-tri…
The framing as a trilemma actually encourages the option that the authors claim not to want - sleepwalking into a longer conflict. By making the issues seem so intractable & underplaying the stakes of some of the options, this piece sells both #Ukraine and the West short. /2
1st, the false option of abandoning #Ukraine is raised as a possibility. 2nd, defeat for #Russia is painted as both inevitably humiliating & having a high likelihood of undesirable security consequences for the West. 3rd,🇷🇺ability to fight a long war is seriously overestimated /3
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(