Given the spirit of the age, you might think that World War I was an imperialist war, but it wasn’t. The Austrians wanted war to fix an intractable political problem at home; the Tsar was afraid his government would fall if it backed down; the Germans were afraid of the “Russian steamroller;” the French were afraid of fighting at some future date without Russian help; and the British were afraid of a continent dominated by Germany. There are no territorial claims in that list.
Given the bloodshed that ensued over the next few years, and given that there were no real ideological stakes in the conflict, you would think that stalemate would lead to a reasonable negotiated peace. It didn’t happen, due to “Dateline” syndrome. All of the parties concluded that, in light of the magnitude of their losses, they needed a clear victory and territorial gains in order to justify the war. The bad guys had to be identified and punished, and the good guys had to be rewarded. And so the war went on, with catastrophic results for Europe and the entire world.
That is my fear for Ukraine. We need to avoid the temptation of “Dateline” syndrome. A deal may not look great (as with, for example, the Korean War), but the alternatives are impractical and dangerous.