A Frog-in-the-Well Solution: The Russo-Ukrainian Conflict
How the CURD Plan Will Bring Peace and Build a New Relationship between Ukraine and Russia
The personalized political science treatise A Frog-in-the-Well Solution: The Russo-Ukrainian Conflict introduces a complex and historically attuned plan for ending the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Doc Ngu’s A Frog-in-the-Well Solution: The Russo-Ukrainian Conflict is part history, part lay political science proposal, and part memoir.
The book draws on Ngu’s experiences as a Vietnamese immigrant, as well as on his studies of cultural and geographic history and the motives of Russia and Ukraine’s leaders, including Vladimir Putin wanting a “Holy Rus” that’s purely Slavic, to propose a means of ending the Russo-Ukrainian War. It names the drawbacks of the continuation of the war before introducing its CURD Plan, a proposal for peacefully ending the war that began in 2014. The plan is covered across several sections focused on its context, clauses, and how its implementation might play out. And beyond this current topic, the book also explores a now-obsolete CUTTR plan for ending the war in Crimea. Its arguments for both plans are dense, incorporating political and cultural history, examinations of the leaders involved, and a wide range of hypothetical scenarios.
Thick with information, the book moves between establishing the facts and introducing flourishes of emotive prose, as with an imaginative description of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s mindset at the start of the invasion and a description of Ngu’s feelings about the world growing up. But all is shared sans supporting references, with the book instead directing audiences to a website to learn more. It ultimately proves to be too short on scholarly sources.
In the sections focused on the CURD Plan, the book packs in cultural and historical context, strategy, and possibilities to an overwhelming degree. The argument for and layout of the plan is nonetheless persuasive in tone, arguing that peace can be achieved via elements like the sale of Crimea, native residency for Russian and Ukrainian residents who wish to reside in the other country, and the return of all prisoners including Ukrainian children.
There are projected benefits for both nations: The book argues that Ukraine would receive the money it needs to prosper and gain legitimacy through being able to sell; it states that Russia would gain a territory it feels a historical claim to, end sanctions, and gain partial citizens among Ukrainian dissidents. These projections are lofty, though, and despite their attention to historical and strategic minutiae, no references are made to support the plan from those leading the nations in question, making the plan seem more speculative than practical.
A Frog-in-the-Well Solution: The Russo-Ukrainian Conflict is piquing political science treatise that suggests a means of bringing an end to an ongoing conflict.
Reviewed by
M. W. Merritt
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