Extended Commentary—Blitz on the West: Ukraine as Ground Zero of China's New Great Game
Journal: World Affairs
Year: 2025

ABSTRACT The task of this commentary is to explore the place of the Ukraine War in China's New Great Game. It is a standard realist trope, crudely adopted by MAGA pundits, that the war is a regional conflict that was born in NATO expansion and warrants little U.S. support. Taking this strategically reductive position is rather like trying to treat the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 as a basically Caribbean event. The fact is that Ukraine is a victim of unprecedented (since the Stalin era) Russian