scholarly journals Russian Military Opportunities in the Context of Ukrainian Crisis

Author(s):  
A. A. Krivopalov

The crisis in the Ukraine not only has maximally escalated the relations among Russia, Europe and the USA but also brought Moscow to the brink of direct military conflict with Kiev. In the context of the civil war outbroken in the Ukraine an opportunity to confirm its demands in the sphere of foreign policy by open force is vital for Russia. However, the nature of two level Ukrainian conflict is such that a direct military confrontation is still possible either between Novorossiya and Ukraine or between Ukraine and Russia if the latter makes a decision to support Donbass at a critical moment. But a conflict is impossible between Russia and NATO because an outbreak of an open war will be prevented by the existing strategic nuclear balance. The presence of a nuclear factor makes military demonstration the most rigid form for confirmation of the demands in the sphere of foreign policy by the conflicting parties. Its most possible scenario is a frontal extension of the Russian ground forces deployed on the Ukrainian border to the west even to the Dnieper line and the border with the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic in the Black Sea region. The article sequentially discusses the he strengths and weaknesses of the group of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, then - the opportunities of the USA and NATO to organize an air bridge to disrupt a possible a possible extension of the Russian troops to the west. The author makes a conclusion that the first units of the rapid deployment forces could arrive to the area near Kiev not earlier than 10-15 hours. Full deployment of the US expeditionary brigade may take from 14 to 18 days. Such a period seems to be excessive. Two-week cushion of time will allow the Russian military to perform all the tasks in the Levoberezhnaya (leftbank) Ukraine while the US troops at the best case will manage to protect the Ukrainian capital. In the nearest time, NATO will tackle obvious difficulties in all the issues related to the projection of force to the South East of the Ukraine. However, in the future in the course of the development of military infrastructure and accumulation of forces this advantage of Russia will be decreasing.

Author(s):  
A. Borisova

The last five years defined an alternative course in the US foreign policy. Obama's reelection caused staff transfers which notably influenced the course. This comprehensive process is based on tremendous work conducted by the Administration of Barak Obama, in particular by John Kerry, who was appointed as a Secretary of State in 2013. His personality plays a significant role in American domestic and foreign policy interrelation. Adoption or rejection of the bills, which are well-known today, depended in large on a range of circumstances, such as personality, life journey and political leader career of the today's Secretary of State. John Kerry’s professional life is mainly associated with domestic policy; nevertheless, he has always been interested in foreign relations and national security issues. Those concerns generally included: non-proliferation, US security, ecological problems, fight against terrorism. The article is intended to highlight Kerry’s efforts in each of these fields, showing not only his actions, but also difficult process of adoption or banning bills in the USA. The author tried to display the whole complicated decision-making process among different parties, businessmen and politicians, law and money clashes. The results of many former endeavors can be seen today, in the modern US policy. Based on assumptions about Secretary of State’s beliefs, certain road map can be predicted. In conclusion, the article offers several courses, where the United States are likely to be most active during the next few years. It can be judged exactly which way some current political issues will develop, how the US foreign policy will be shaped by today's decision-makers in the White House.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (27) ◽  
pp. 91-114
Author(s):  
Luis Alexander Montero Moncada ◽  
Maria Paula Velandia García

In this article, we examine the elements that are being developed by NATO and Russia in a strategic competition in Europe. Having analysed these elements, each sub-system, as described by the Realist Theory of International Relations, is facing major changes in today’s world politics. From Northern Europe to the Balkans and the Black Sea region, the analysis focuses on areas of tension that could potentially become problematic for the interaction between the two actors. Besides, the Baltic region is explained further due to its continuous activity regarding either hybrid or tradition war tactics. Finally, we draw a parallel between NATO, the EU and the USA as main actors in European Security and how the latter has been changing drastically since Donald Trump took office. We conclude by analysing potential risks, scenarios and conflicts between NATO and Russia in short range projections.


Author(s):  
Taner Akçam

This chapter examines how the policy followed against the Ottoman Greeks underwent an important change in November 1914, when the use of widespread violence against the Greeks and their forcible expulsion to Greece were halted. Policies concerning the Greeks during the war years were restricted henceforth to sending some of those living in coastal areas to interior provinces for military reasons. This procedure, connected with Russian military victories at the end of 1916 and throughout 1917, was carried out in a systematic manner, particularly in the Black Sea region. In some areas, massacres of Greeks were observed, but in general the Greek population remained exempt from the policy of deportation and annihilation applied to the Armenians.


Author(s):  
Jude Woodward

This chapter reviews US-China-Russia relations in the post-war period, and considers how recent developments affect prospects for the US ‘pivot’. It explains why those driving US foreign policy towards China see the confrontation with Russia in Ukraine as a dangerous and diversionary adventure, leading to Sino-Russian convergence, distracting US attention from East Asia and undermining confidence among the US’s Asian allies of its commitment to the region. It is argued that if the US is to maintain primacy in the 21st century, it must subordinate other foreign policy goals to the paramount objective of containing China’s rise. The US’s failure to do this, instead pitting itself against both Putin in the West and China in the East, means it has driven Russia and China together, quite possibly sacrificing its vital need to contain China for a lesser goal of uncertain outcome in Ukraine.


Author(s):  
Neziha Musaoğlu

Many important changes occurred in the Russian Federation's foreign policy since 2000s with Putin's coming to power. Although the foreign policy is defined as pragmatic during this period, it is in fact ideologically constructed on the basis of the concept of “sovereign democracy.” The concept constitutes in the same time the source of loyalty of the Russian reelpolitik towards the West, especially the USA and of the Russian anti-globalist policies. The aim of this chapter is to analyze the intellectual, normative, and conceptual dimensions of the “sovereign democracy” concept that could serve to conceive the foreign policy practice of the Russian Federation, on the one hand, and on the other hand its dialectical relationships with the West in the era of globalization.


2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 269-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Welch Larson ◽  
Alexei Shevchenko

Since 2003, Russian foreign behavior has become much more assertive and volatile toward the West, often rejecting U.S. diplomatic initiatives and overreacting to perceived slights. This essay explains Russia’s new assertiveness using social psychological hypotheses on the relationship between power, status, and emotions. Denial of respect to a state is humiliating. When a state loses status, the emotions experienced depend on the perceived cause of this loss. When a state perceives that others are responsible for its loss, it shows anger. The belief that others have unjustly used their power to deny the state its appropriate position arouses vengefulness. If a state believes that its loss of status is due to its own failure to live up to expectations, the elites will express shame. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has displayed anger at the U.S. unwillingness to grant it the status to which it believes it is entitled, especially during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, and most recently Russia’s takeover of Crimea and the 2014 Ukrainian Crisis. We can also see elements of vengefulness in Russia’s reaction to recognition of Kosovo, U.S. missile defense plans, the Magnitsky act, and the Snowden affair.


2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliane Schiel

AbstractIt is usually held that by the turn of the millennium Latin Christians stopped enslaving their fellow-believers from within Europe. Scholars have therefore tended to define the late medieval type of domestic slaves in Italian and Iberian households, most of whom had been traded from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea region to Europe, by their cultural and religious difference. Yet, the numerous Christians from the Balkans who came across the Adriatic Sea to the West (and especially to Venice) clearly complicate the picture. They were mostly under twelve years of age and could be purchased at a very low price. The paper examines the commercial policy of the Venetian Senate in respect of the Adriatic human trafficking and sounds the strategies Venetian merchants used in order to pursue their interests, within and outside the legal framework set by the state authorities East and West of the Adriatic Sea.


Author(s):  
Sedat AYBAR

This paper examines the impact of co-operation between Turkey and  the US upon Turkish trade and investments towards the Black Sea  region. The study is particularly important in the conjuncture of the  US withdrawal from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and in the wake of signing a free  trade agreement with the EU. An additional matter of importance  relates to the improved Turkey – Russia economic collaboration especially after the “jet” incident and American  involvement with the Middle East. Significant part of the latter is  economic as the US has also explicit economic interests in the  Eastern Meditteranean. A gravity model has been employed using  ordinary least squares on a panel data with fixed effects to analyse aggregate trade. We have also categorized export groups of  Turkey and the US separately. Our findings for both Turkish and the US exports indicate that per-capita GDP of Black Sea countries are  highly persistent and positively correlated with increased efficiency  gains and trade volumes. Regression results show that the US  exports to the EU member countries are on average less than to  those non-EU member Black Sea countries. Hence, we question  whether a possible co-operation between the US and Turkish  companies can help gaining better access to the Black Sea market for their exports.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-189
Author(s):  
M. A. Neimark

While studying the changes in the conceptual foundations of Russian foreign policy from its inception to the present day, an important place is occupied by the systematization of factors, circumstances and trends that predetermined the beginning of overcoming mistakes and errors of the 90s and the transition to its doctrinal sovereignty. The collapse of the USSR became the litmus test of the attitude of the West, primarily the USA, to the new Russia. Having no historical precedent, such a swift — overnight — reverse formation leap from «real socialism» to real capitalism, and by no means the expected transition from confrontational bipolarity to monopolistic unipolarity, predetermined the hopes of B. Yeltsin and his immediate circle for the elimination of past geopolitical antagonisms, high expectations regarding the readiness of the collective West, led by the United States, for an equal dialogue with Russia. That clearly emerged with the regard to the elaboration of the first conceptual model of the foreign policy of Russia in 1993 that in a number of basic parameters had a pronounced american-centric character. The idea of the “westernization” of the foreign policy activity of Russia was pushed primarily by the liberal circles as a panacea for the elimination of the ideological and political pillars of the Soviet system, overcoming the deepest social and economic crisis with the hope, and even with the conviction that the «benevolent hegemon» of the United States and the West as a whole «will help us». The author proceeds from the fact that referring to the sources of the formation of the conceptual base of international activity of Russia, taking into account underestimated or, conversely, overestimated factors, is of great practical importance for updating and optimizing the foreign policy strategy of our country, improving the work of Russian diplomacy and increasing its effectiveness in the fight against new international challenges and threats.


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