‘Wartime mindset’?

Dec 27 2024 The Guardian

Wars happen to other people… right?

Well, that sentence is slightly wrong, it should be “wars happen to people”.

Wars happen to people like me, and to people like you.

When wars happen to those “other people” in the “faraway places”, you watch the news and read the papers, but once you turn off the TV or your newsfeed, you can, and will, go on with your normal everyday life, after all it did not happen to you, did it?

When war happens to you, your perspective changes, you shift to a “wartime mindset”. You will find out which bomb shelter to go to when the bombs start falling; you will pack a grab-bag with all your important documents, a few family photos and whatever you need to survive for a day or two; you will take a crash course in first aid; and at some point you will write a will. But the biggest change will be the realisation that war can happen to you, and that it is not a question of if, but when.

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A few weeks ago the Nato Secretary general, Mark Rutte, said that it is time to "shift to a wartime mindset" in Europe. Here is the link to that piece Nato must switch to a wartime mindset, warns secretary general

Oleksandr Mykhed, an Ukrainian writer, while sheltering from a missile attack, read that news story. Below is the link to his piece in The Guardian about what a ‘wartime mindset’ really means in Kyiv.

Can Europe switch to a ‘wartime mindset’? Take it from us in Ukraine: here is what that means