Part of George Mason University's "Russia's War on Ukraine in Historical Perspective"
Christopher Hamner discussed the way that military strategists are interpreting the events and lessons of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Military planners and theorists have been surprised by the events to date-both the Russian military’s unexpectedly hapless planning, and the Ukrainian military’s remarkably effective defense of their nation. This lecture will discuss what the first six months of the invasion have revealed about the nature of Russian military planning and capabilities; the way that the motivation of soldiers and the broader society affects both Russian and Ukrainian efficacy in the field; and the way the two sides are employing the suite of tools commonly known to national security intellectuals as the DIME (Diplomacy, Information, Military, Economic) in pursuit of their objectives.
Christopher Hamner is Associate Professor of History at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and specializes in the social dimensions of war and warfare. He earned his PhD at the University of North Carolina and is the author of Enduring Battle: American Soldiers in Three Wars, 1776-1945, which explores the evolving motivations of American soldiers as the battlefield became more technologically sophisticated and more lethal. Hamner has been a fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and at the U.S. Army’s Center for Military History. From 2014 to 2016 he was a Visiting Professor at the U.S. Army War College in the Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations. In 2013 he received Mason’s University Award for Teaching Excellence.
This session was moderated by Steven Barnes, Director of the Program in Russian and Eurasian Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University. He is the series organizer and teaches and researches broadly on the history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, modern Russia, Kazakhstan, and the other independent countries from this imperial space.