Why Vladimir Putin has already lost this war

theguardian.com

19 points·maury91··4 comments

This is exactly the kind of war that is most unlikely to happen between two liberal democracies[1] according to democratic peace theory[2]. Only a leader whose interests are distinct from the public and who can work without legal constraints can make a personal error of this magnitude.

There is no real animosity nor cause for the war between Ukraine and Russia. Both countries lose big in this war.

[1]:liberal democracy: democracy with separation of powers, an independent judiciary and a system of checks and balances between branches of government.

[2]: Democratic peace theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_peace_theory

The example of the second Iraq war (2003) shows that democracies do launch invasions of other countries.

Now, I think a democracy would think twice before starting a war where it can be foreseen that effects would be very negative to their own people if only because of the risk of being voted out.

> distinct from the public

The sad thing is that a large chunk of people in Russia actually support him. Even educated ones. I saw a shocking interview with an academic (who even lectured on western unis) - he said, that on personal level destruction of Ukrainian cities is a sad thing, but Moscow just executes the law/privilege of the empires.

You mean John Mearsheimer?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com