hal, what does this war, this last year tell you about the modern strategy that you write about in this book? which is to say, the rallying of the west to the aid of ukraine, the strengthening of nato, the addition of a new member to nato. what has this war done, or at least told you about modern strategy? i think one thing it s done is to puncture the myth of putin as the master strategist. we spent about 15 years thinking that putin was the judo master who could simply hold all the reins of power in his hands and deploy it skillfully to get what he wanted. he s done it in a few small conflicts, but he s fallen on his face in this one. he underestimated the ukrainian resistance, underestimated the west bringing a powerful response. he surely underestimated the degree to which this would drag down russian power certainly in the moment and in years to come.