The term gained currency after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, which Moscow itself described as an ‘operation to compel peace’. In the modern world, states generally do not end wars simply because the costs become too high. In the modern world, states generally do not end wars simply because the costs become too high. They may, however, end a war if they come to understand that continuing it will not deliver a better political outcome. Moscow chooses war despite understanding its high cost — and this is not the first time it has done so.