#john mearsheimer

The University of Chicago | Why is Ukraine the West’s Fault? Featuring John Mearsheimer

A great lecture from 2015 by Mearsheimer, arguably the most important international relations theorist alive today, on the origins and potential solution to the ongoing conflict in/tensions over Ukraine. Obviously outdated now about some specifics, but the general analysis absolutely holds up.

Ukraine, he argues, is a region of “vital strategic concern” to Russia, and as such Russia will be willing to pay almost any price to keep it out of NATO; sanctions will not deter it. Russia’s strategy is that, if NATO will not accept the status quo ante and the existence of a neutral Ukraine, Russia will “wreck” the country, rendering it militarily and economically impotent and indefinitely trapped in internal conflict and instability. The solution lies in the acceptance of the reality of great power politics and the existence of spheres of influence, such that NATO stays out of Ukraine and does not threaten Russian security. He also has some really interesting things to say on the increasingly defunct nature of NATO as an organisation, which I think are especially pertinent post-Trump.