Theorizing on Futures within the War: Expertise from and on Ukraine in Global Dialogue

War shatters the existing structure of everydayness; it is a time of radical vulnerability and protracted uncertainty when the horizons of the future are shrinking drastically. However, it also provokes an avalanche of academic reflections from different positions. Some traditions explain the war by appealing to historical, political, or economic arguments; some focus on collecting and analyzing data as quickly as possible; others aim to build models and forecasts. Differences in theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches can result in heated discussions and indicate tensions in global knowledge production. As I argue, these tensions also happen due to variations in assumptions about the future. The paper builds on interviews with scholars of and from Ukraine who engaged in international discussion after the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. What kind of knowledge infrastructures support or undermine their expertise? What images of the future do they imply in their theorizing? What is the role of justice in framing the arguments in global knowledge production on and from the regions that have long been marginalized? My presentation contributes to the discussion on the “insider/outsider” dilemma as a range of positions that change and evolve. It also shows how the future as a resource is unevenly distributed, especially during unfolding violence, which has long-lasting effects on the development of regional expertise. Finally, the paper tackles what can be done better concerning international academic collaboration in war-related projects.