While many see Russia’s movement to admit Crimea as an attempt recreate a communist USSR-like ‘supercountry’ and the Russian government and their Pro-Russian Ukrainian counterparts have committed multiple crimes against humanity, the United States should not intervene in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Tight sanctions risk severing ties with Russia and military intervention may very well ignite World War III. This may be seen as even more democratic imperialism, which the United States has been trying to avoid recently.
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].
Vladimir Putin is the elected president of the Russian Federation. The former member of the KGB is known to some as a torturer, a tyrant, and a murderer and is known to have plans to recreate the Soviet Union. While saying that letting Crimea become a part of Russia is giving in to Putin’s communist ideals, Crimea is largely Russian, and is not strategically important to the European Union’s goals. Yanukovich’s (The former Prime Minister of Ukraine) security forces fired upon and killed dozens of protestors. He was ousted ...
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[2] Weaver, Matthew. "Ukraine Crisis." The Guardian. N.p., 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 7 Mar. 2014. .
[3] Carbonnel, Alissa, and Luke Baker. "Crimea votes to join Russia, Obama orders sanctions." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 6 Mar. 2014. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. .
[4] "A Quick Guide: What's Happening in Ukraine." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 23 Feb. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
Gordon, Michael. "Crimea Approves a Secession Vote as Tensions Rise." The New York Times. The New York Times, 6 Mar. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. .
In 2012, the total population of Luhansk comprised approximately 426,000 people. The majority of city´s industrial companies have established connections with the Donbas coal and steel complex (Gentile, 2015). Generally, almost everyone in Ukraine is able to fluently speak and understand Russian, however, a vast number of people are not able to speak Ukrainian. They have an even problem to understand the language (Himka, 2015). In addition, the eastern part of Ukraine is largely urbanized and for this reason, the region more easily assimilated to use of Russian language (Himka, 2015). From the past, it is known that in the 1990s, approximately one-third of the population of Donetsk proclaimed not to support the addition of the Donbas to Ukraine (Shulman, 1998 as quoted in Gentile, 2015). Especially the Russian minority, people from the east, the retired and the poorest tend to be more pro-Russian oriented. They are even willing to follow stronger bonds with Russia (Kubicek, 2000 as quoted in Gentile, 2015). In one of his speeches, Putin mentioned the gone areas of “Novorossiya” including areas of Donbas and Luhansk, that were ceded to the Ukrainian SSR by the Soviet administration in the 1920s (Allison, 2014). This political situation resulted
The Web. 8 Mar. 2014 Gumuchian, Marie-Louise, Wedeman, Ben, and Lee, Ian. “Ukraine Mobilizes Troops After Russia’s ‘Declaration Of War’.” CNN, 3 Mar. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Web.
I believe that there is no clear-cut position as to whether we should be Interventionist or Isolationist. It all comes down to circumstances. Almost every conflict the United States had been involved in has been about economics and what our country can gain. We have been one of the world’s greatest powers since the early 1900’s, mainly because of colonialization and domination of world economy.
Russia, a vast country with a wealth of natural resources, a well, educated population, and diverse industrial base, continues to experience, formidable difficulties in moving from its old centrally planned economy to a modern market economy. President Yeltsin's government has made substantial strides in converting to a market economy since launching its economic reform program in January 1992 by freeing nearly all prices, slashing defense spending, eliminating the old centralized distribution system, completing an ambitious voucher privatization program, establishing private financial institutions, and decentralizing trade. Russia, however, has made little progress in a number of key areas that are needed to provide a solid foundation for the transition to a market economy.
"Russian military action is not a human rights protection mission, It is a violation of international law." said U.S. ambassador Samantha Power(1). The Russian Ukraine crisis is happening now, Russia has invaded Ukraine trying to take back what they gave up years ago. If fighting started in the Ukraine country's like the U.S.A. would have to decide if and who they would side with. If country's decide to fight it could start another world war. Clearly things can take a wrong turn with the Russian Ukraine crisis and could result in the creation of a dystopia. First I will describe what is happening in Ukraine and how WW3 could start, next I will tell how Ukraine armed forces are ready to fight, then what could happen if nukes and EMP's are used.
Milanova, Boriana, and Victoria Eastwood. "Ukraine Orders Crimea Troop Withdrawal as Russia Seizes Naval Base." CNN. Cable News Network, 5 Mar. 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
SUMMARY: The Syrian Civil War between the Syrian government, and the insurgents, as well as the Free Syrian Army has been escalating since early 2011. The United States, and our allies have faced difficulty in sending aid to Syria, and continue to deal with obstacles in sending even basic medications to Syrian civilians. However, the United States and its allies have also contributed to the lack of organization and the disparity in Syria by sending aid and artillery to individuals based only on political connection, and ignoring organization, local alliances, and without a true understanding of the reality of the Syrian localities to best protect the Syrian protestors. The question addressed in this memo will be defining the viable options to be pursued in Syria, how to pursue them, and assessing the most beneficial path of least resistance when offering aid, funds, and artillery to specific groups in the country. The recommendation will be that although the best alternative action item would be to choose a Syrian group with the least oppositional values comparative to the United States to fund, supply with arms, and train; that the United States should do nothing for the time being. Given the physical and financial risk involved with the Syrian Civil War, it would be prudent for the United States to simply observe how the war progresses over the next several months, as well as complete some research to truly understand the state of affairs in local areas of Syria to determine the extent to which the United States could identify a group to provide aid to, as well as the extent to which the United States involvement would be within Syria.
Ukraine and Russia have been hand in hand for hundreds and hundreds of years. Ukraine is the most important country in Russia's natural gas exports. Pipes run from Russia t...
"Why Crimea Is so Dangerous." BBC News. N.p., 11 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Apr. 2014. .
In order to realize the United States’ role in both provoking and pacifying the Ukrainian conflict, we will first look at the contemporary contextual circumstances leading to Ukraine’s status quo woes. Then, we will look at how our government’s doctrine of “Diplomacy, Development,
The cause of this crisis is complicated. First of all, the country has been struggling with its identity sin the independence. Ukraine only has a population of 45 million people but it has been struggled to deal with its internal conflicts. It fails to build a strong political party, to overcome corruption or complete some kinds of economic reform. All of its president tend to allow oligarchs and to seek for more control over economy. By the end of 2010, the government has controlled half of the country’s GDP. Therefore, the political opponents intensified and the protest is urged. The attempt to overthrow the government started in 2004, which is called the orange revolution. This revolution was cause by the cogged presidential election which elected Viktor Yushchenko the president. President Yushchenko continued to severe the political and economic trouble since his presidency. Almost secretly, Ukraine has been divided into three parts; the north and central are oriented by western countries in Europe while the southern and eastern Ukraine is oriented by Russia. Fighting the close ties with Russia, President Yanukovich was able to win the election of 2010. However, the corruption did not stop while he in power. He won the election by accusing Tymoshenko, a highly regarded reformist, of abuse of power. It is reported that Yanukovich’s family embezzled over 8 million a year for 3 years as the president. Yanukovich made another mistake in late 2013. When he almost came to the agreement with the European Union on a trade association contract, he overturned his decision under the pressure of Russia. He exp...
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe, that borders Russia north and northeast. Lately Ukraine has been making international headlines; the country is in complete and total turmoil or for lack of better words a crisis. What started as a request from the Ukrainian citizens for a change in government, limit the powers of the president, restore the country constitution back to its original form from 2004-2010, and get closer ties to the EU. Peaceful protesting turned in to a nightmare, when the then president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych failed to make good on his word. Instead, he made a deal with Russian president and late sought refuge in Russia. A few weeks later, he was ousted from this prompted the Ukraine revolution and the annexation of Crimea also known as the Crimean crisis. A revolution in Ukraine took place in February 2014 for a period of 5 days in Kiev the capital of Ukraine, after a series of violent events in the capital culminated with the ousting of the then-President of Ukraine. Immediately following the ousting of Yanukovych, immediate changes took place in Ukraine’s sociopolitical system. Starting with the a new interim government being installed and the constitution was restored to its original state, and plans to hold impromptu presidential elections in the months to follow. Before the revolution, Ukraine had been sunken by years of corruption, mismanagement, lack of growth economically , their currency value had dropped , and they had the inability to secure funding from public markets. Because of this, president Yanukovych wanted to establish closer relationship with the European Union (EU) and Russia in order to attract the money necessary to maintain Ukraine's standard of living without a...
That being said, the Ukrainian crisis is playing a greater role on a global scale, as power is in play that enables the balance of the economy to change. This can be comprehended by the notion of Russia’s ability to promptly demand a referendum in Crimea that is against the constitution. The president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, has triggered the uprising of social movements, as he diverted and did not hold his promises to assure and guarantee a stronger relationship with the European Union to further develop Ukraine’s stability. Thus, Ukraine did not achieve its key foreign policy goal. In contrast, President Yanukkovchy has joined the Russian trade bloc by accepting a gas contract that had not been favorable towards Ukraine, upsetting the majority of the public citizens in Ukraine.
Sasse, G, ‘The Crimea Question: Identity, Transition, and Conflict’, Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2007.
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).