Summary of Paul D'Anieri's Ukraine and Russia

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is the result of deep normative disagreements and conflicts of interest, and it is not dependent on mistakes by leaders.

#2 The problems that erupted in 2014 emerged from the conflict between Ukraine, Russia, Europe, and the United States that began in the post-Cold War period.

#3 The conflict in Ukraine was not caused by the overthrow of the Yanukovych government in 2013, nor was it caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. It was caused by the deep mutual fears that the status quo in eastern Europe might change irreversibly.

#4 The complexity of the relationships involved has been overlooked, because it is difficult to focus on internal affairs in Ukraine and Russia, their relationship with each other, and their relationships with the West.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669381426

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Insights on Paul D'Anieri's Ukraine and Russia

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is the result of deep normative disagreements and conflicts of interest, and it is not dependent on mistakes by leaders.

#2

The problems that erupted in 2014 emerged from the conflict between Ukraine, Russia, Europe, and the United States that began in the post-Cold War period.

#3

The conflict in Ukraine was not caused by the overthrow of the Yanukovych government in 2013, nor was it caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. It was caused by the deep mutual fears that the status quo in eastern Europe might change irreversibly.

#4

The complexity of the relationships involved has been overlooked, because it is difficult to focus on internal affairs in Ukraine and Russia, their relationship with each other, and their relationships with the West.

#5

There are two schools of thought on Russia’s involvement in the war in Ukraine. The first sees Russia as aggressor, seeking expansion for domestic reasons. The second sees Russia as reacting against western expansion. While these explanations fit into the school of defensive realism, which believes states can usually manage the challenges inherent in the anarchic international system, they are still pessimistic in that they view the international system as bringing even nonaggressive states into conflict.

#6

The approach in this book is consistent with the school of thought known as neoclassical realism, which finds that the security dilemma conditions international politics. However, it differs from prevailing interpretations by acknowledging that the various leaders were constrained by both international and domestic politics.

#7

The book is not a work of history, as it is not based primarily on archival sources. However, it does describe what happened and how the actors at the time explained what they were doing.

#8

The conflicts between Russia and the West, and Ukraine and the West, were rooted in deep disagreements about what the post-Cold War world should look like. Those differences have persisted to this day, and they constitute each side's perception of what the status quo was or should be.

#9

After the Cold War, Russia, Ukraine, and the West had very different expectations about how their relationship would be based on sovereign equality or on traditional Russian hegemony.

#10

The post-Cold War order was being overturned by Russia, which saw the West trying to overturn it by expanding NATO eastward and by promoting colored revolutions against governments that Russia supported.

#11

The end of the Cold War represented a massive geopolitical shift driven by mostly peaceful democratic revolutions in eastern Europe. The West learned that democratization also brought important security gains. However, democratization repeatedly undid the status quo, and Russia feared that it would be next.

#12

After the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt, democracy promotion became not just the pursuit of an ideal, but a powerful weapon in the contest for influence in a chaotic world.

#13

The spark that led to the Ukrainian conflict was provided by Ukraine’s internal politics. Yanukovych, the president of Ukraine, sought to fundamentally reorder politics in the country in ways that many of its citizens and elites did not