What are you willing to die for? – How the Ukraine war forces us to take a new stance

The war in Ukraine – now already in its third month – and the humanitarian catastrophe it brings with it keeps occupying the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. I am no exception. In early March, I posted:

“My brain tells me that peace is the exception rather than the rule when we look at human history in its totality. But my heart keeps rebelling, not wanting to accept that there is a war between sovereign countries in Europe – creating needless suffering and death for so many. When the war in Ukraine started last Thursday, our daughter turned two years old. We celebrated her birthday – less than a day drive away from where missiles were attacking Ukrainian cities. Will she have the privilege to grow up in peace like I did? I didn't doubt it … until last Thursday.”

… and these feelings continue.?

Being European, being German

As a German, decades after the Second World War and the end of Nazi rule, I grew up in a country scarred by collective national trauma and in a family in which two of my father’s siblings had died as children in the war.?

I feel that my conversations with friends and colleagues on the Ukraine war can sometimes be quite different, depending on whether they were socialized in Europe or not. The geographical and cultural proximity of Ukraine obviously plays a key role – and the fear that the war might spread beyond Ukraine’s borders, directly militarily affecting the home countries of Eastern, Central and Northern European friends, including my own home country.

When I finished high school, mandatory military service in Germany was still in place and I completed it before moving on to my university studies. I was relieved to leave the army, as I felt it was delaying the pursuit of my actual personal and professional ambitions. For the last two decades, the army was of no interest to me. Rather, I was trying to understand better how to achieve positive outcomes without using violence; for instance, engaging in mindfulness meditation and non-violent communication training. Because we need to be clear: armies are ultimately there to be able to use violence, even for causes we typically consider just, like self-defense.

Non-violence and war

What to do, however, when non-violent and diplomatic efforts are failing? When people are killed, raped, mutilated, abducted, deprived of their human dignity? When war crimes happen? Ukrainians chose to exert an exceptional willingness to fight and sacrifice. The war in Ukraine is also portrayed as a fight for liberal democracy and freedom, as Europe’s and “The West’s” Eastern stronghold against autocracy and disrespect for human rights.

What are you willing to die for? Many Ukrainians have clearly answered this question over the last two months. Those outside the war zones, like myself, have the privilege to think about this question in abstract terms. Like most parents, I would give my life to save the life of my child. Beyond that? I don’t know. Are concepts like human rights, democracy, freedom sufficient to confidently say we would be willing to die for trying to protect them? If we are not willing to do so, what would be the consequences? A world run by bullies and authoritarians, in which one would have to carve out niches of personal contentment, at best, and, at worst, in which enslavement and genocide would be the norm.

A new political and personal stance

Many Europeans, especially Germans due to my home country’s atrocities and war crimes in the first half of the 20th century, were hoping that mutual economic interdependence and trade would ensure peace in Europe after the end of the Cold War. While I was sharing this hope, it has now become clear that it has not been enough and that it has been done at the expense of military preparedness.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Ukraine war, the German government took a new stance (the Zeitenwende), announcing not only major investments in the country’s military but also abandoning Germany’s long-standing policy to not deliver weapons to conflict areas – since this week, this even means gifting tanks to Ukraine. In parallel to my home country’s new stance, I have felt I was forced to reconsider my own attitude to the military. Within two weeks after the start of the Ukraine war, I applied to be trained as an officer of the German army reserve, alongside my day job.

Still detesting violence, I recognize that non-violent solutions are not always possible. Of course, I hope the war comes to an end as soon as possible. Until then, we need to support the Ukrainian people in its fight. Слава Укра?н?!