Introduction: Looking at the war in Ukraine and ways it could end from a global perspective

Our dialogical book Debating the War in Ukraine covers more than three decades of world history, but focusses mostly on developments in Europe. Here we situate the war in Ukraine within a global context. The aim of this special forum is to broaden our dialogue on historical counterfactuals and possible futures in geopolitical terms (critically understood) by including new contributors. The forum will start with a book review, followed by one commentary and three articles that pose questions about counterfactual histories and possible futures by discussing the roles of Brazil, China, India, and Turkey and the difference they could make. How will the war end and how will it reconfigure global processes and constellations of world politics? Is the world becoming increasingly divided into antagonistic blocs? Are there real possibilities for a peace process or better common institutions? We conclude this forum by a further dialogue on future possibilities.