Propaganda and Postheroism in Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine. A Meditation Around Conflict as an Imagined Community

Abstract

The post Cold War euphoria pervaded also strategic studies with the belief that future wars will be waged in a postheroic manner, to take Edward Luttwak' s famous catchphrase- technological intensive and almost cost free in human lives, they hailed the promise of delivering swift victories for industrialized nations. Our article issue a critique based on the sociology of Émile Durkheim and Georg Simmel and embeds postheroism in a wider notion called "war as an imagined community" arguing that postheroic operations work to the extent they are limited and cover in a solid narrative, both for the international community as well as for the impatient home public. The case studied here is the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war started in February 2022.

Keywords

• russia
• ukraine
• postheroic warfare
• imagined community