In a Post soviet environment World has evovled around a unipolar system with united states having a preponderance in international matters. The remanants of the cold war still haunting europe. Most of the Eastern European nations formally allied with soviet union are now turing away from russia towards European union. The Reasons for this paradigm shift owes a lot to the democratic ways of the liberal western world and the economic ties and stability being offered to its allies. Hitherto Ukraine was in a dilemma whether to join the western block or to to under the patronage and shadow of Russia. The Multi ethnic population of Ukraine has different opinions. Some favour Russia and others favour European union. Their choices seems to be motivated by geographic and cultural proximity. The Immediate cause of the current crisis traces its origin to the Ukrainian presidents descision to forfeit an agreement with the european union. And Endorsing the russian aid in terms of a bail out plan and an added gas price reduction. So the current crisis has far reaching political and economic ramifications. If russia pulls out of the economic bail out package there needs to be an alternative. European union has a responsibility to ensure the regional peace. A military action in Ukraine would further deteriorate the situation and may escalate it to a multiparty conflict.
Ukraine is a nation that voluntarily disposed its nuclear arsenal and ICBMs . In Mid nineties it was the possessed the third largest nuclear arsenal. Though the disposal of nuclear arsenal was n't taken for granted, it involved an economic incentives. If ukraine had those nuclear weapons , there would have a minimum credible deterrence. Nuclear Abilit...
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.... Any attempt to withdraw the troops will definitely have a profound influence on maritime issues in black sea.
NATO's presence in the Europe has been touted as a measure to counter Soviet Union and later Russia. Russia is surrounded by multiple military bases in eastern European sector. Ukraine was the primary forward base for Soviet union during the cold war. So a hostile governent in one of it's forwards bases poses a subtle strategic threat for Russia. In order to counterweight the regime backed by west Russia may support the favourable group.
Being a diverse country comprising of multi ethic population its quiet natural to have diverse opinion. A state needs to be pluralistic and must heed attention to the voice of the people. The Ukrainian governemnt has failed in that account. Ukraine is on the verge of civil war and it must be avoided at all cost.
After World War II, Europe emerged as a continent torn between two very different political ideologies, Communism and Democracy. As the two major superpowers, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States, struggled to defend their respective governmental policies, the European Continent was caught in an intrinsic struggle to preserve the autonomy which had taken so long to achieve. During the Cold War, Eastern European nations struggled to achieve autonomy with the help of the West's dedication to break the Soviet sphere of influence. After the disintegration of the USSR, the struggle for autonomy among nations shifted from an intense, inward, nationalistic struggle to break away from a superpower to a commitment of international unity and cooperation as nations began to take moral and political responsibility for their actions.
...r responsibility in addressing its alliances and protecting the flow of energy resources in the European region. Use of force through NATO in Crimea is also not likely as the increased escalation of force or war is not worth risking lives in order to uphold the image of sovereignty of a non-NATO country.
With the fall of the pro-Russian government Russia had lost basically a very important ally to the European Union and NATO. President Vladimir Putin took a great risk and invaded Crimea that resulted in strong reactions from the West. Even Russia’s closest allies supported the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin’s aggressive actions toward the western world, specifically Ukraine, is inspired by the steps Joseph Stalin took during his rise to power by developing a cult mentality, using brute force to invade countries such as Greece and Turkey, and issuing threats to all countries who disagreed with his expansion of power and communism during the Cold War. It was Stalin’s increasing aggression towards Europe and the United during the Cold War that made him one of the most feared and unpredictable individuals at that time. Today, Putin is exhibiting identical behavior by following in Stalin’s footsteps and is issuing threats in addition to ignoring what Europe and the United States has to say.
The arms race the Soviet Union had been involved in with NATO had bankrupted their economy. This in turn affected the people, when the economy started to collapse, the people started to lose their jobs, were not able to get the basic necessities from the local stores. In most cases when one form of government can not provide the basic needs for their people, then the people will look for a form of government that can provide for them. Then there is one aspect of human nature that the Communist Party in the Soviet Union was not able to control and the desire of the people of Eastern Europe to be free of Soviet control. Before World War II, the countries that made up Eastern Europe had been independent countries able to decide their own fate.
To sum it up, Euromaidan is not simply about not signing the Association Agreement, but the development of Ukraine as a country as a whole. It has been hanging on between post-Soviet autocracies in the east and highly democratizing and prosperous neighbors to the west for 22 years.
International politics as one may imagine includes foreign affairs. This is why the topic and focus of this paper revolves around the current event within Eastern Europe. It will focus on both Russia, Ukraine, and the world, and from it, it will be analyzed by using the resources provided within class. After all it is a International Politics course, and one of the best ways to effectively put the skills and knowledge to use is to focus on an event or current event. The paper will attempt to go over in a chronological order of the events that has happened, and what is happening currently over in Ukraine. Afterwards, an analyzed input will be implemented providing reasoning behind Russia's actions, and actions of the world, and potentially some solutions.
Why is Russia afraid of NATO? The answer exist in the history of Russia and way of conducting foreign policy. Throughout the history Russia as a part of the Soviet Union have built their foreign policy on aggression and by attacking their neighbors. Here are some examples. The war with Poland in 1920, the military conflict with China in 1929, the military clash with Japan near Lake Hassan in 1938, the conflict over the river Halkin-Gol in 1939, the occupation of western Ukraine and western Belarus in 1939, and the attack on Finland in 1939. Finely, after World War II USSR occupied the of Eastern Europe
Up until 1954, Ukraine was a crucial and highly profitable member of the USSR. Strategically placed between Russia and the rest of Europe, Ukraine contains many valuable natural gas pipelines. Crimea is autonomously governed peninsula owned by Ukraine, about two and a half time the sizes of the Island of Hawaii. There are roughly twice as many ethnic Russians as there are Ukrainians and the majority feel closer ties to Russia [1]. Anti-government protests turned violent and in late February, the Ukrainian government fired on protestors, killing dozens and wounding hundreds [2]. On March 6th, the leaders of Crimea stated that they intended to join Russia and are planning a vote on March 16th [3].
The Cold War was a time of great tension all over the world. From 1945 to 1989, the United States was the leader and nuclear power and was competing with the Soviet Union to create huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons. However, even though the Cold War ended, nuclear weapons are still a threat. Countries around the world strive to create nuclear power, and they do not promise to use it for peaceful purposes. Some examples of the struggles caused by nuclear weapons include the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Iran’s recent nuclear weapon program. Surely, nuclear weapons have created conflict all over the world since the Cold War era.
Soon, there appeared possibly the last film made by Avramenko and the last one made in America, The Tragedy of Carpatho-Ukraine. It exhibited an experience for Ukrainians, but it did not produce the direction that Avramenko might have wanted. This film was a political documentary on the province of Carpatho-Ukraine, who proclaimed independence from Hungary and strove to become their own sovereign country. Afterward, President Woloshin had made an arousing speech to the newly-formed Sojm(Congress), where he declared “Faith is the strength of the individual and the strength of the people.” In other words, faith in themselves would keep them strong against their enemies. Unfortunately, the film ends on a sad note with the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, when Hitler decided to conquer the Soviet Union. Although the film had a general theme of showing Ukraine trying to proclaim independence for themselves, the source material did not seem authentic. The film faced a debate of whether the scenes with the Sojm appeared in past documentaries or reenactments. A truly sad demise had fallen on Peter Lissiuk, a cameraman, killed during a battle between the Hungarians and the Ukrainians during film production. Regardless, this last film established another decent film by Avramenko and managed to showcase the true events of Carpatho in the Ukrainians eyes, not the Soviets.
President Putin made a clear statement that this is an internal issue that does not concern the rest of the world's leaders nor their citizenry while still appealing to other nation's sense of justice. This is further cemented when he addresses them all in the opening by referring to them as friends of his, he stated “Dear friends, we have gathered here today in connection with an issue that is of vital, historic significance to all of us.” This again affirms that it is their problem and no one else should be involved or concerned. However, when he says “A referendum was held in Crimea on March 16 in full compliance with democratic procedures and international norms.” He is addressing the world at large simply by using the phrase “international norms” while appealing to western ideals by referring to the democratic processes by which Crimean citizens had chosen to leave Ukraine.
...the task of the US and their European allies to bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights; the charge, a violation of its international treaty rights. Russia should also be required to conduct peace negotiations with the Chechens under the guidance of the various European Groups with a vested interest in the preservation of the borders of the surrounding countries. Threats of this can be conveyed to Russia, but this action, and anything that may come of it will not necessarily by abided by Russia. Russia has already shown that it will do what it wants concerning this issue. The US and its European allies are in apposition where threatening Russia with action is the only thing that they can do. Russia will not respond to these threats and will best only give them lip service. That this conflict be resolved in a manner favourable to Russia is essential. Russia cannot permit the secession of any part of its territory because it will lead to actions by other regions and the access to Caucasus oil fields cannot be lost. Any other action taken by a third party will only result in destabilization of Russia and termination of diplomatic relations between Russia and the west.
Moreover, there are also many benefits to NATO’s future. It has been said that NATO will try to enlarge their program and spread into Russia. If Russia could get on board with NATO and peace for the world, most problems will be solved. The true question with this though is: can Russia be trusted? Hopefully so in order for the problems to be solved.
The conflict between the Ukraine and Russia is the Ukraine's most long-standing and deadly crisis; since its post-Soviet independence began as a protest against the government dropping plans to forge closer trade ties with the European Union. The conflict between Russia and the Ukraine stems from more than twenty years of weak governance, the government’s inability to promote a coherent executive branch policy, an economy dominated by oligarchs and rife with corruption, heavy reliance on Russia, and distinct differences between Ukraine's population from both Eastern and Western regions in terms of linguistics, religion and ethnicity (Lucas 2009).