Ukraine and Russia, Ireland and Britain: Quasi-colonial subjugation, anti-imperial nationalism and conflict, end of empire, and ‘the lost peace’: A review essay

Abstract

This essay reviews new books on the fraught relationships between Ukraine, Russia and North Atlatic Treaty Organization countries since 1990, and on comparative studies of quasi-colonial subjugation, the development of anti-imperial nationalism and conflict, and protracted and violent transitions to full national independence in Ireland and Ukraine. There are comparisons of the ways in which four centuries of recurrent tension, conflict and divergence between Ukraine and Russia either resembled or differed from the five centuries of fraught relationships between Ireland and Britain. Ireland’s Great Famine (1846–1849) is compared with Ukraine’s Holodomor (1932–1933). The essay also assesses conflicting attributions of responsibility for ‘squandering’ the opportunity to enhance European security and global peace during the 1990s, and for bringing about dramatic escalations of Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 – initiating a ‘Second Cold War’ from 2014 onward.