Mearsheimer: Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault

[Kevin_Kennedy]

According to the prevailing wisdom in the West, the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the argument goes, annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire, and he may eventually go after the rest of Ukraine, as well as other countries in eastern Europe. In this view, the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 merely provided a pretext for Putin’s decision to order Russian forces to seize part of Ukraine.

But this account is wrong: the United States and its European allies share most of the responsibility for the crisis. The taproot of the trouble is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it into the West. At the same time, the EU’s expansion eastward and the West’s backing of the pro-democracy movement in Ukraine -- beginning with the Orange Revolution in 2004 -- were critical elements, too. Since the mid-1990s, Russian leaders have adamantly opposed NATO enlargement, and in recent years, they have made it clear that they would not stand by while their strategically important neighbor turned into a Western bastion. For Putin, the illegal overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected and pro-Russian president -- which he rightly labeled a “coup” -- was the final straw. He responded by taking Crimea, a peninsula he feared would host a NATO naval base, and working to destabilize Ukraine until it abandoned its efforts to join the West.

Putin’s pushback should have come as no surprise. After all, the West had been moving into Russia’s backyard and threatening its core strategic interests, a point Putin made emphatically and repeatedly. Elites in the United States and Europe have been blindsided by events only because they subscribe to a flawed view of international politics. They tend to believe that the logic of realism holds little relevance in the twenty-first century and that Europe can be kept whole and free on the basis of such liberal principles as the rule of law, economic interdependence, and democracy.

John J. Mearsheimer How the West Caused the Ukraine Crisis Foreign Affairs

This is what I've been saying all along, along with many others, though I would disagree that western elites have been "blindsided" by the events that have followed since they helped depose the Ukrainian government. I would argue that this is exactly what they wanted to happen so that they could continue to try to portray Russia, and Putin specifically, as the bad guys. Their liberal rhetoric is just a smokescreen for their own power hungry agenda.

 

[Stratford57]

Thank you so much for highlighting that subject. Everything is sooooooo true, Reagan has promised Gorbachev not to expand NATO to the East, and now, you are right, it's already in Russia's backyard. And the battle for Ukraine is nothing but an action directed against Russia (thousands of people have already paid for that "experiment" from both sides, but the world refuses even to notice that). It's easy to imagine a reaction from Washington if Russia did something like that next to American borders.

 

[bendog]

Kevin, I linked that same piece yesterday. I won't bother to differ with what I think were some historical misstatements, because I think this was the most important paragraph.

There is a solution to the crisis in Ukraine, however -- although it would require the West to think about the country in a fundamentally new way. The United States and its allies should abandon their plan to westernize Ukraine and instead aim to make it a neutral buffer between NATO and Russia, akin to Austria’s position during the Cold War. Western leaders should acknowledge that Ukraine matters so much to Putin that they cannot support an anti-Russian regime there. This would not mean that a future Ukrainian government would have to be pro-Russian or anti-NATO. On the contrary, the goal should be a sovereign Ukraine that falls in neither the Russian nor the Western camp.

I think that would be an answer. However, note that the Maiden crisis came about when Ukranian citizens became alarmed when the unpopular leader sought to change course on economic ties to the West and enter into an exclusive arraingement with Russia. And frankly what sane person would choose economic ties to Russia rather than the West.

Further, I don't see the Poles as irrational in fearing a soviet proxy Ukraine on their border. The article says such is impossible. The Poles are upping defense spending and asking for US troops.

So, to say Putin is merely acting logically seems to miss the pt. Certainly after he attempted to assassinate a Ukranian leader, I think we can say he's not above meddling. But, that's not to deny the neocons aren't stirring things up as well.

I think the EU would be fine with an unaligned Ukraine, with its borders guaranteed by all, and with the ability to enter into trade agreements with the EU and Russia simultaneously.

 

[Stratford57]

The best thing for West would be to divide Ukraine according to its historical borders and give the pieces to the countries it was belonging before: Poland, Hungary, Romania, Russia. That would be the most bloodless ans wise scenario. Right now it's absolutely impossible to keep Ukraine in its former borders, too much blood has been already poured. You all will see: all SE from Odessa till Kharkov will eventually separate from Ukraine, the only question is: how many more lives it will cost...

 

[bendog]

That is the Russian view, though not that of the Geneva Accords.

 

[Stratford57]

That is the Russian view, though not that of the Geneva Accords.

Poor people who listen only to Western news and think those are really news... From what I watched them saying about situation in Ukraine and also about Georgian war in 2008 I can say: lies, Hollywood. Goebbels said: "Give me Media and I will turn any peoples into a tribe of pigs." People, protect yourselves....

 

[1776]

Of course, to you fucking kooks it is the fault of others not Russia that Ukraine is tired of being raped by Russia this while Russia is inside Ukraine killing Ukrainians.

The OP is an insane son of a bitch.

 

[1776]

The sack of shit OP would blame Poland for Hitler invading them...

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Of course, to you fucking kooks it is the fault of others not Russia that Ukraine is tired of being raped by Russia this while Russia is inside Ukraine killing Ukrainians.

The OP is an insane son of a bitch.

Right, along with Mearsheimer, one of the most respected political scientists on foreign affairs alive today.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

The sack of shit OP would blame Poland for Hitler invading them...

And here we have a deranged troll.

 

[bendog]

That is the Russian view, though not that of the Geneva Accords.

Poor people who listen only to Western news and think those are really news... From what I watched them saying about situation in Ukraine and also about Georgian war in 2008 I can say: lies, Hollywood. Goebbels said: "Give me Media and I will turn any peoples into a tribe of pigs." People, protect yourselves....

LOL. Aren't you the guy who denied Putin's use of dioxins? At any rate, Kevin's link should show a way out of this: the Ukraine should be able to enter any economic alliance so long as the alliance doesn't prohibit other economic alliances. The eastern provinces, which the Soviets attached to the Ukraine back before WWII, and to which the Soviets gave up any claim to upon the Soviet Union's dissolution, should have the autonomy to run their own local govts, and be free from any discrimination in terms of economic benefits and personal freedom.

But if you think that'd satisfy Putin, I have a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl for sale. ....

At any rate, Post WWII the Geneva Accords prohibit any nation from using force to remove territory from another nation. Putin doesn't buy into that.

 

[Stratford57]

Unfortunately, the people like you don't want to understand, that we are not trying to satisfy Putin (even though we like him), we are trying to get the heck out of Ukraine and its fascist junta before it exterminates all the ethnic Russians on our lands.

 

[bendog]

Well, when Kiev starts building ovens, give the UN a shout out.

 

[Stratford57]

While you are joking around, Kiev has already started building "filtration camps"(= concentration camps) for Se residents who may be suspected for not being too loyal to Kiev junta.

 

[bendog]

I'm sorry Stratford but you've cried wolf once too often with putin inspired Russian media conspiracy theories.

Though I have no doubt you sincerely believe the propaganda nor that it isn't effective in the eastern Ukraine.

 

[Stratford57]

I wonder, what do you know about Putin, about events in Ukraine and from which sources? As for me,I don't need propaganda, I watch the events live, talk to witnesses, have reliable sources. And, I'm sorry to say it, you act like a real victim of Western media client.

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas Jefferson

 

[1776]

Shitstain....is he getting his info from inside Russia, inside Germany, inside Ukraine, etc.....no.

Shut the fuck up.

Right, along with Mearsheimer, one of the most respected political scientists on foreign affairs alive today.

 

[1776]

Oh yeah kook.....and they are going to eat their cooked bodies too!!!

They just gotta make sure all those EU, OSCE, UN, etc officials leave town before they eat you....

While you are joking around, Kiev has already started building "filtration camps"(= concentration camps) for Se residents who may be suspected for not being too loyal to Kiev junta.

 

[Vikrant]

It’s time to back away from the Russian wolf

It rsquo s time to back away from the Russian wolf - Telegraph

 

[Stratford57]

It’s time to back away from the Russian wolf

It rsquo s time to back away from the Russian wolf - Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-time-to-back-away-from-the-Russian-wolf.html

Bravo!!! And thank you! I would disagree about Crimea: it was more legal than separation and recognizing Kosovo. Before Crimea separated there was a referendum with over 90% voted for joining Russia and in Kosovo its Parliament decided about separation (the USA were the first to recognize Kosovo). In Crimea case separation occurred along with established International rights normative , in Kosovo case it was against the International rights normative (no referendum).