On Hybrid Warfare and “How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin” (1/2): Impossible Peace, Imminent War

Legend has it that, while Sultan Mehmed II’s troops were besieging Constantinople, Byzantine theologians became engrossed in a theological debate about ‘how many angels can dance on the head of a pin’ (translated from the French expression ‘discuter du sexe des anges’), neglecting the city’s defence. Constantinople ultimately fell on 29 May 1453. Hence the expression ‘to argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin’: to become lost in futile discussion while an urgent situation grows worse.

The question of whether we Europeans are really at war with Russia is much the same. Denying it and continuing to talk of ‘hybrid warfare’, just as the Byzantines once debated how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, will do us no good.

The only question that really matters is: how do we prepare for it?