{"id":2331,"date":"2025-09-16T06:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T06:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/?p=2331"},"modified":"2025-09-16T06:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T06:36:20","slug":"john-mearsheimer-ukraine-barely-hanging-on-14-sep-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/?p=2331","title":{"rendered":"John MEarsheimer: Ukraine Barely Hanging On, 14 Sep 25"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Core takeaway:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ukraine is losing ground militarily, Western support is eroding economically and politically, yet leaders double down on military aid and sanctions, increasing the risk of dangerous escalation rather than pursuing settlement.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The discussion highlights the weakening position of Ukraine as U.S. support declines and Trump pressures Europe to take on more of the burden. Zelensky is running a strong propaganda campaign to maintain Western backing, but Europe\u2019s fragile economies (France, Germany, UK) make sustained support doubtful. Militarily, the West lacks the manpower and industrial capacity to match Russia\u2019s weapon production, leaving Ukraine unable to compete on the battlefield despite information war success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>European leaders like NATO\u2019s Mark Rutte push for expanded defense spending and frame Ukraine\u2019s security as tied to Europe\u2019s, but this is seen as delusional: welfare-state politics make cutting social spending for military buildup unrealistic, and even if investments are made, they won\u2019t bear fruit before the war ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, escalation risks rise as Europe doubles down. If Ukraine\u2019s military collapses, the West may feel compelled to escalate further rather than accept defeat, making the situation dangerous. On sanctions, the EU continues introducing new packages, despite previous 18 rounds failing to shift Russian behavior\u2014showing a lack of strategic reassessment since the failed Istanbul negotiations in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John MEarsheimer: Ukraine Barely Hanging On\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zzSbFzmv1v4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Core takeaway: Ukraine is losing ground militarily, Western support is eroding economically and politically, yet leaders double down on military aid and sanctions, increasing the risk of dangerous escalation rather than pursuing settlement. The discussion highlights the weakening position of Ukraine as U.S. support declines and Trump pressures Europe to take on more of the burden. Zelensky is running a strong propaganda campaign to maintain Western backing, but Europe\u2019s fragile economies (France, Germany, UK) make sustained support doubtful. Militarily, the West lacks the manpower and industrial capacity to match Russia\u2019s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-offensiverealism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2332,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331\/revisions\/2332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}