Photo: Katarina Marković

The ongoing war, which is not simply local but a war that in many ways exceeds the borders of the territory where it is taking place, introduces several protocols that we need to rethink and formulate in a new way. One of them is victory. Is it meaningful to talk about the victory of a certain side in a conflict in which one side is not at war at all? Is it justified and will it ever be justified to talk about the victory of a country which, despite the help of all NATO countries and the world, has already been partially destroyed and suffered great losses? Who will be the winner of this war that will, at some point, definitely stop and what is the victory or “victory” that we can expect?

This lecture will reconstruct the protocol of “victory” as a part of the interruption of enmity and establishment of temporary peace. Different understandings of the enemy and enmity imply that victory in war and cessation of conflict can essentially determine the way war is conducted and that they follow the rules of war. Victory is supposed to be a crucial moment that characterizes the ethics of war. Particular testimonies and thematizations of victory in the Orthodox Christian tradition can provide an introduction to a potential ethics of war that could ensure a new relationship towards the enemy and toward the killing of the enemy.