"Ukraine: The War Nobody Knows How to End"

By Athanasios G. Platias

The below paragraph is taken from "Ukraine: The War Nobody Knows How to End" published in Modern Diplomacy on August 25, 2025

"Wars Are Easy to Start—and harder to End

Starting a war is simple; ending one is far harder. The problem of war termination has long been neglected in both international relations theory and diplomatic practice. The assumption has always been that battlefield victory would automatically allow the winner to impose terms. But history rarely follows so linear a path. Only in exceptional cases—most notably the unconditional surrender of 1945—have wars ended neatly. Most conflicts require the far more complex art of translating military outcomes into political settlements, a skill mastered by very few statesmen."

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