Ukraine war is now two and a half years old since it started in February 2022. War took a new turn with Ukraine’s recent incursion into Russia’s Kursk province, thus expanding the war onto Russian soil. Putin has promised a befitting response to this provocation. Media is buzzing with analysis and predictions on how and when this war will end. For a moment let us forget the current events in Ukraine War. Sooner or later, this war would end and the scene would change. Whatever the new scenario this war leads to, fact is that Russia would continue to exist where it is and so will more than two dozen diverse European nations. Politico-strategic scenarios change, geography remains the same. That is a lesson from history that was well refreshed in Afghanistan. My question is, what Europe would look like after the Ukraine War ends.

Europe’s post WW-II dispensation has hinged on its trans-Atlantic solidarity and draws its security and strength from NATO: that was the case, both during the cold war and in the unipolar and multipolar years that followed the dissolution of (erstwhile) Soviet Union in 1991. Historically, Russia’s relationship with European nations has been an interesting story where Russia has alternately played the role of a friend and a foe. During World War–II, Russia had not only fought as an Allied power (alongside US, UK and........

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