My guest today is Dr Samir Puri, who is a visiting lecturer in War Studies at King’s College London and has previously taught at Cambridge and John Hopkins.
He joined me for a deep dive into his two most recent books. The first one, ‘The Great Imperial Hangover: How Empires Have Shaped the World’, explores how empires of the past still influence geopolitics today. And the second one, ‘Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine: Invasion amidst the ashes of empires’, published in late August, explores the role of imperialism in Putin’s ultimate decision to invade Ukraine and traces Ukraine’s fate as a nation caught in a geopolitical tug-of-war between Russia and the West.
Samir has also served as an international observer at five Ukrainian elections, including during the Orange Revolution in 2004. Soon after the first Donbas war began in 2014, he spent a year in east Ukraine working on both sides of the front line as part of an international ceasefire monitoring mission. Since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine, Samir’s analyses of the war have been featured by the BBC, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets.
Some of the topics we discussed are:
Samir’s background and how it influenced his academic interests
Defining ‘empire’ and understanding the role of its legacy
Distinguishing between a formal and informal empire
The consequences of waning US hegemony and Pax Americana
The importance of history and lineage to national and individual identity
Understanding how imperial legacy contributed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
How Western democracies should navigate their imperial legacy
The significance of Ukraine for Russia and its imperial legacy
Proximity to history as crucial in shaping contemporary narratives
‘Great power contest’ as the present narrative
Exploring the structural reasons why Ukraine is currently a warzone
Understanding NATO and how it might be perceived outside of the alliance
Samir’s assessment of how the Russian invasion of Ukraine ends
Exploring the impact of the Russian invasion on Chinese post-imperial aspirations
Samir’s greatest concern as we head into 2023