How groupthink distorts conflict — and what it takes to see clearly
From Kabul to Najaf, from Chechnya’s brutal campaigns to the trenches of Ukraine, Julius Strauss has seen how wars are lost in the mind long before they are lost on the battlefield. As former Moscow bureau chief for The Daily Telegraph and a veteran of conflicts across the globe, he has watched governments, militaries, and the media fall prey to groupthink — the dangerous consensus that rewards conformity and blinds institutions to the reality on the ground.
At TheMerode, Strauss will be in conversation with our moderator Charlie Stuart, a distinguished British diplomat and the European Union’s Chief Security Advisor on Africa. Together, they will explore why the West misread both the scale of Russia’s ambitions and the weaknesses of its military, how official narratives crumble in the face of field reporting, and what it means to break out of the echo chamber — whether you are a journalist, a diplomat, or a decision-maker.
Drawing on lessons from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine, Strauss will show how listening to farmers and grandmothers can reveal more than ministerial briefings, how the myth of the “mighty Russian military” was built, and why we may need to rethink what victory looks like in the 21st century.
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Strauss was a long-serving correspondent for the Daily Telegraph who specialised in covering wars and other foreign stories. He was based in the Balkans for nearly a decade and later served as Moscow bureau chief during Vladimir Putin’s early years.
As well as the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, Strauss covered the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Chechnya, as well as many revolutions, uprisings and coups. (He once masqueraded as a Russian military officer and spent 10 days on operation near Grozny with Spetsnaz, the Russian special forces.)
Later Strauss moved to north America and taught journalism for two years as a guest professor at the University of Alaska.
During the Afghan war he was recruited by the British government and posted to Helmand where he served as a political officer working with the Pashtun tribes and the US Marines.
Strauss now divides his time between Canada, where he owns and runs a wilderness lodge and various charities including one for wounded veterans, and Europe where he teaches and works as a journalist.
Strauss has written for the Telegraph, the Spectator, the Guardian, The Globe and Mail and many other outlets.
He now mostly writes his own newsletter on Substack, called Back from the Front and concentrates on writing comment, analysis and field reports on Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East and the Balkans.
Strauss recently co-directed a documentary about a family caught up in the Kosovo war.
As well as a journalist, Strauss is an experienced wilderness guide specialising in grizzly bear behaviour, a certified animal tracker, and a rafting guide. He pilots his own 1957 bush plane.
