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from the National Interest
Feb 22, 2014 02:00 am | Paul J. Saunders
Though
Ukraine appears to settling its bloody political crisis, establishing a
durable peace in the country requires careful examination of what has
happened and why. Many have already assessed the immediate causes of the crisis,
including Ukraine’s internal divisions, public resentment of President
Viktor Yanukovych’s corrupt rule, European Union miscalculations in
negotiating and Association Agreement with Yanukovych and his
government, Russia’s pressure on Ukraine to reject the draft agreement,
and Yanukovych’s dangerously incompetent leadership, among other forces.
Yet few have thus far considered one of the most powerful forces
underlying not only the recent violence, but much of Ukraine’s tragic
and disappointing post-Cold War history: Russia’s uncertain place in
Europe. Neither Ukraine nor Europe are likely to reach the futures their
peoples seek without resolving this problem.In May 1997, the United States and its NATO allies made one of the first formal attempts to define Russia’s role in post-Cold War Europe through the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation—an agreement that established a Russia-NATO Permanent Joint Council as a forum for discussion of shared concerns and objectives. Though the Permanent Joint Council eventually failed—to be replaced by the NATO-Russia Council in 2002—it had two important and lasting consequences.
read morehttp://nationalinterest.org/commentary/russias-uncertain-place-europe-9915
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