Making sense of the Ukraine war: Geographers should not be afraid of geography

Abstract

AbstractIn this commentary I respond to the editor's dual invitation to offer critical geographical understandings of the Ukraine war and to reply to Ian Klinke's (Klinke, 2023) specific criticisms of my arguments about the role of NATO expansion in it. I suggest that first, we should recognise that geographical factors are crucial in understanding why the war occurred. Second, we need to theorise how geographical imaginations influence international relations and have done here in the form of NATO expansion. Finally, we should explore counter‐mappings of European futures in ways that could help us move towards a resolution of this terrible war.