Кафедра політології
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Browsing Кафедра політології by Author "Kuzio, Taras"
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Item Russia-GUAM-US triangle of competition over Eurasia and geopolitical pluralism(2021) Kuzio, TarasThis article discusses the triangle of competition between Russia and the USA over three members of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, GUAM: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Ukraine. The first of three sections analyze how Russian leaders and politicians have, since 1991, prioritized the reintegration of the former Soviet space over nation-building in the Russian Federation. Russian officials and politicians have always viewed the former USSR, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Eurasia as "Russia’s exclusive sphere of influence". Russia has supported separatism and manufactured frozen conflicts, recognized the "independence" of separatist regions, and annexed neighbouring territories in countries that have stepped in a direction contrary to Russia’s regional interests in Eurasia. The second section focuses on Ukraine and GUAM members Azerbaijan and Georgia, which have prioritized building nation states over joining integration projects in the post-Soviet space and have implemented independent or pro-Western security policies. The third section analyses US security policy towards Eurasia and the South Caucasus under assertive (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush) and indifferent (Baack Obama, Donald Trump) presidents. This section discusses policies that US President Joseph Biden could pursue to revive the US as a security actor in partnership with Turkey towards Eurasia and the South Caucasus in pursuit of what US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski described as "geopolitical pluralism" in Eurasia.Item Russophilism and Misunderstanding Ukraine : Review(2024) Kuzio, TarasThis critical review focuses on two new books published by Western scholars that continue to misrepresent Ukraine. Olga Onukh and Henry Gale adhere to the common misconception of Ukrainian politics as divided into "civic" and "ethnic" or "nationalist" and "pro-Russian" presidents. The negative label "ethnic" and "nationalist" is applied only to the center-right Ukrainian politics, which is merged with the nationalists into one group. East Slavic nationalism promoted by the Soviet regime, Russia and pro-Russian forces in Ukraine such as the Party of Regions is not taken into account. Steven Shulman provides a better structure of Ukrainian politics with competition between supporters of "ethnic Ukrainian" and "East Slavic" identities. Using Shulman's structure, we see that there is little difference between Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko. Onukh and Gale's basic concept that "civic" Zelensky is better than "ethnic" Poroshenko is undermined by theory, a comparative understanding of nation-states and their politics. Dominique Arel and Jesse Driscoll describe the 2014-2021 conflict in Ukraine as a "civil war", strikingly echoing Russian disinformation and the writings of Russophiles in the West. Arel and Driscoll's arguments are weakened by their selective use of Ukrainian, Russian, and Western sources (for example, very few Ukrainian opinion polls are used), the lack of field research in southeastern Ukraine, and the exaggeration of the importance of language in the identity of most Ukrainians. They do not adequately explain why the "Russian Spring" failed in six out of eight southeastern regions of Ukraine and only partially succeeded in Donbas. . Due to their poor understanding of the concept of Russian hybrid warfare, they ignore many examples of Russian intervention other than military aggression (such as disinformation, cyberwarfare, Russian political tourists posing as Ukrainians, Russian intelligence subversion, Russian artillery shelling Ukraine, and Kadyrov's forces ), which existed before the Russian invasion in August 2014.