Berlin, FRG (Weltexpress). In his latest article published on Substack, British economic historian, anti-militarist, and life peer Robert Skidelsky analyzes the current debate surrounding the Ukraine conflict and the associated insane arms race in Europe.
Lord Robert Skidelsky is well known for his critical stance toward NATO, its expansion to Russia’s borders, and its military interventions. In his Substack article in English, he addresses five key issues: the need for European rearmament, the status of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the alleged “sanctity” of international borders, the reinstatement of the Monroe Doctrine by the US, and military Keynesianism as a remedy for economic stagnation. Due to space constraints, not all five topics can be presented in this article, but the rest will be published here shortly.
Lord Skidelsky begins by noting that recent developments, particularly ongoing alarmist statements by EU and NATO representatives and an interview with Lord George Robertson, former NATO Secretary General and principal author of the British “Strategic Defense Review” (SDR) from 2024, as well as the recent presentation of the new “US National Security Strategy 2025” (published on December 4), prompted him to take up his pen to bring the discussion back down to earth with the famous British “common sense.”
Skidelsky begins with a sharp critique of European rearmament and the accompanying “threat inflation” driven by politics and the media. In doing so, he recalls Lord Robertson’s SDR, which effectively aims to ignite and anchor a war-ready attitude throughout society, emphasizing that the UK must be “better prepared for high-intensity, protracted wars” and that its war capability and deterrence should “permeate every aspect of society.” This is reminiscent of Dr. Joseph Goebbels and his calls for “total war,” which permeated all areas of society in a totalitarian manner.
The Berlin political bubble also likes to draw on the Nazi vocabulary of the former Reich Minister of Propaganda. Together with other Nazi criminals, he repeatedly invoked the “war readiness” of his German compatriots and demanded a war-ready mentality throughout society. If you don’t believe this, search one of the many archives of Nazi newspapers from the war period for issue 28 of Goebbels’ weekly newspaper Das Reich from July 9, 1944.
On the front page is a commentary penned by the Nazi chief propagandist under the headline: “As fit for war as ever.” Goebbels’ aim at the time was to send even more cannon fodder to the front for the already lost war against the Soviets in order to live like a pig in clover for another ten months, or in his case, to extend his own life expectancy by that amount of time. This begs the question of whether the parallels to today are purely coincidental.
The real scandal is that Goebbels’ word “Kriegstüchtigkeit” (fitness for war) has become the trademark of an SPD defense minister. But no one in the Berlin elite bubble seems to be bothered by this fact. But when a leading opposition politician concludes his speech with a seemingly innocuous saying that – as he is later accused of – was inscribed on the blade of the SA’s honorary dagger, all hell breaks loose among the hypocrites, and the takeover of the republic by the Nazis is imminent. The court labeled the politician in question a Nazi and sentenced him to a fine. Once again, we saw the rule of law of the best Germany ever in action.
But back to Lord Skidelsky. In the rest of his article, he focuses on the recent appearance of former NATO chief Lord Robertson at the British arms industry’s “London Defense Conference Investment Forum in December 2025.” There, Robertson reinforced his demands and called Russia the primary threat to the United Kingdom. He argued that the Kremlin sees Britain as a proxy for the US and that the island would therefore be one of the first targets if Russia were to rebuild its armed forces. Robertson called for an increase in defense spending to five percent of GDP with US support, or even seven percent without the US.
Skidelsky quotes Robertson’s warnings about alleged Russian plans to attack countries such as Moldova, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and criticizes the contradictions in Robertson’s account, which he says are obvious to everyone: On the one hand, Robertson describes Russia as being in full economic decline and failure, as well as militarily incompetent, only ever “advancing millimetre by millimetre” in Ukraine. In addition, Russia is facing demographic collapse. But then, in the next breath, Robertson describes Russia as an existential threat to the whole of Europe.
For Lord Skidelsky, these claims are incompatible and an example of paranoia or threat inflation. He points to “gray zone warfare” activities such as cyberattacks or disinformation, which, according to NATO, allegedly blur the distinction between peace and war. He considers a four percent increase in UK military spending as a percentage of GDP for “whole-of-society” defense to be absurd.
Skidelsky says he heard similarly alarmist tones in a debate in the House of Lords on December 8, where peers such as Lord Coaker, Baroness Goldie, and Lord Stirrup called for mobilization and lamented the indifference of young people toward war. The goal, they said, must be to bring Britain to a state of readiness and combat capability similar to that of France or Germany. This last sentence in particular shows how the elitist NATO warmongers adopt the propaganda lies of their respective allies in order to cheer people on.
Below is a short biography of Lord Robert Skidelsky
Born Robert Jacob Alexander Skidelsky on April 25, 1939, he is a renowned British economic historian, author, and life peer in the House of Lords (Crossbencher, elevated in 1991). He is Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at the University of Warwick and best known for his award-winning (published 1983–2000) three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), which is considered the definitive work on the economist.
Skidelsky was born in Harbin (Manchuria) to British subjects of Russian-Jewish origin. He studied at Jesus College, Oxford, and held academic positions at Johns Hopkins University, North London Polytechnic, and Warwick. He began his political career with the Labour Party and later co-founded the Social Democratic Party. He briefly served as a Conservative spokesman in the House of Lords before being fired in 1999 for speaking out against the “NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.”
Skidelsky’s critical anti-militarism, particularly with regard to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, emphasizes diplomacy over escalation. He argues—echoing warnings from figures such as George Kennan—that NATO’s eastward expansion provoked Russian security concerns and rejects the portrayal of an “unprovoked” Russian war of aggression. He criticizes Western policy for refusing to negotiate, insisting on total Ukrainian victory despite limited support, and risking nuclear escalation in the process.
His stance is based on a realistic view: autocracies and democracies can coexist without falling into permanent conflict, and wars such as the one in Ukraine result in part from Western hubris in attempting to impose a neoliberal order on the world. This fundamental rejection of militarism is consistent with his earlier anti-interventionist positions and prioritizes peace negotiations over regime change or indefinite proxy wars.
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See related articles
- The Budapest Memorandum – Series: Lord Skidelsky exposes warmongers (Part 2/3)
- Double standards of “the inviolability of borders” – series: Lord Skidelsky exposes warmongers (part 3/3)
in WELTEXPRESS.
