Russia's War in Ukraine and Modern Warfare

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Russia's war in Ukraine represents a watershed moment in the evolution of modern warfare, challenging long-held assumptions about how wars are fought, sustained, perceived, and theorized in the twenty-first century. It has become not only a defining conflict of our time but also a prism through which the dynamics of modern and future warfare can be understood. This volume offers the most comprehensive analysis to date of the war and its implications for current and future understandings of warfare. It brings together leading scholars and practitioners to illuminate the theory and practice of war in light of the conflict. Chapters in the first part examine themes across critical dimensions of modern warfare, including warfighting domains, manoeuvre warfare, command and control, urban warfare, military health services and logistics. The second part explores organization, technology, and training, with chapters examining experiences in force generation, intelligence collection and sharing, and the integration of new technologies, particularly the rapid evolution and employment of unmanned aerial vehicles. Finally, the volume provides a chronological set of five case studies, tracing the impact of critical phases of Russia's war in Ukraine from 2014 to 2025.

Mikael Weissmann is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Systems Science for Defence and Security and Acting Director of the Land Warfare Centre at the Swedish Defence University. He is also co-convenor of the Hybrid Threats Research Group (HTRG) and an Affiliated Researcher at the Swedish Defence University Centre for Wargaming (CWG). He has previously held positions at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), the University of Copenhagen, Stockholm University, Uppsala University, and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Niklas Nilsson is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in War Studies, Land Operations Division, Department of War Studies and a Senior Lecturer (External Engagement) at the Centre for Societal Security, Swedish Defence University. He is a co-convenor of the Hybrid Threats Research Group (HTRG) and a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP). He has previously positions at Uppsala University, as a Fulbright Visiting Researcher at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, and as a Visiting Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies and at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.