Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, unleashing a war with no end in sight. In July of the same year, the board of Political Observer - the former Portuguese Journal of Political Science - decided to publish a themed issue on the subject. The wide reception of articles, their quality and the importance of the topic meant that the board decided to publish two successive issues on the War in Ukraine for the year 2023. Given the relevance of the topic and for future reference, a first essay marks the times, present, past and future of the context of the war.

In this second volume, covering the second half of the year, we’ve put together a number of more outlandish, but also more creative, articles that look for causes and investigate com- parisons. Whether it’s questioning the role of the Russian Orthodox Church or evaluating the position of the Polish Catholic Church in the face of the conflict. We would like to thank Dr. Pedro Constantino and Dr. Marcin Zatyka for their analyses. In addition to these first articles, the inquiries of young researchers João Gomes and Jorge Garrido, with their military and strategic perspectives, complete the series, and we close with the study co-authored by Maria Azevedo and Neuza Sá on the indivisibility of security, in keeping with the journal’s tradition of giving space and place to studies by young political scientists.

At the end, Professor Carlos Vargas gives us a review of the book of ESCHEN, Penny M. Von. Paradoxes of nostalgia. Cold war triumphalism and global disorder since 1989. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2022. The title of which expresses well the ongoing analytical sentiment.

Special thanks to PIEKART, from Krakow, who authorized the use of the cover image, an expressive image of the feeling of bewilderment expressed in the beauty of the young Ukrainian woman depicted on the walls of Krakow. Without the support of Professor Patrícia Oliveira and Dr. Pandora Guimarães, this issue of the magazine would not have been possible. We would like to thank them all.

30 September 2023.