BETWEEN NATO & RUSSIA: UKRAINE’S FOREIGN POLICY CROSSROADS REVISITED

Authors

  • M Kapitonenko

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17721/apmv.2009.86.2.19-27

Abstract

A strategic choice between NATO membership and closer cooperation with Russia is at the heart of Ukrainian foreign policy. Locked within this dilemma, Ukraine often misses out other important foreign policy variables. Most importantly, the framework for strategic choice is shifting, with potential risks and benefits changing significantly. Moreover, Ukrainian decision-makers often believe that the right choice between East and West will be enough to settle Ukrainian security. This article puts forward the hypothesis that the context of this choice is more important, namely, that structural factors and additional regional arrangements are crucial to both national and regional security.

References

M. Kapitonenko. Between NATO & Russia: Ukraine’s foreign policy crossroads revisited // The Caucasian Review

of International Affairs (CRIA) Vol. 3 (4) - Autumn 2009, pp. 43 5-444.

Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 165-68.

See Kurt Campbell, Michael O’Hanlon, Hard Power: The New Politics of National Security (Cambridge: Basic Books, 2006).

See Joseph Nye, Soft Power. The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004).

On interdependence theory, see Joseph Nye and Robert Keohane, Power and Interdependence: World Politics in Transition (Boston: Little Brown, 1977).

For a guide on European integration theories, see Ben Rosamond, Theories of European Integration (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000).

Pareto optimality is a general measure of efficiency in strategic interactions. It implies than there is no other outcome to the situation that makes every player at least as well off and at least one player strictly better off. For more details, see Avinash Dixit and Susan Skeath, Games of Strategy (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004), Chapter 12.

On international regimes, see Stephen D. Krasner (ed.), International Regimes (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983).

For a short version of the history of Ukraine-NATO relations, see http://www.mil.gov.ua/index.php?lang=en&part=cooperation&sub=history (accessed September 20, 2009).

Gerald B. H. Solomon, The NATO enlargement debate, 1990-1997, (Westport: Praeger,1998), 121.

The Alliance’s Strategic Concept, 1999, official text at http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_27433.htm (accessed September 20, 2009.

See Razumkov Centre’s polls for 2002-09 at

http://razumkov.org.ua/eng/poll.php?poll_id=46 (accessed September 21, 2009).

See Jennifer D. P. Moroney et al. (eds.), Ukrainian Foreign and Security Policy. Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives (New York: Praeger Publications, 2002).

Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (New York: Basic Books, 1997).

See Barnett Rubin & Jack Snyder (eds.), Post-Soviet Political Order (New York: Routledge, 1998).

See, for instance, The Joint Summit Statement by President of the USA Clinton and President of Ukraine Kuchma, dated November 22, 1994, at http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/offdocs/j941122.htm (accessed September 21, 2009).

For power vacuum and other power considerations, see Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1973).

See, for instance, Yuscheko’s address to US Senate at http://www.america.gov/st/washfileenglish/2005/April/200504061638281CJsamohT0.3202631.html (accessed September 22, 2009).

For more details see Mykola Kapitonenko “Resolving Post-Soviet “Frozen Conflicts”: Is Regional Integration Helpful”, Caucasian Review of International Affairs, Vol. 3:1 (2009): 37-44.

Ukrainian foreign policy since President Kuchma (1994-2005) was labelled as multivectoral insofar as Ukraine was aiming to develop strategic cooperation simultaneously with Russia, the USA, and several major European states, counter-balancing the influence of each of them. For more details, see the Address of the President of Ukraine to the Verkhovna Rada, Uryadovy Kuryer, 23 Februaury, 2000, p.5-12.

For analysis of this option in Ukrainian, see http://cs.cirs.kiev.ua/uk/news/commentary/92-2009-09-17-08-59-47.html (accessed on September 22, 2009).

Published

2009-10-30