Misc Quotations Flashcards
“The low level of public support for NATO membership may well prove to be the Achilles’ Heel of Ukraine’s ambitions to be invited sooner (in 2008) rather than later to join NATO.”
- leaked US diplomatic cable
likely written by John E. Herbst
‘[I]f the West is honest with itself, it has to admit that there were mistakes on its side. The annexation of Crimea was not a move toward global conquest. It was not Hitler moving into Czechoslovakia.’
He pointed out that Putin had just spent tens of billions of dollars on the Sochi Olympics, the theme of which was that Russia is part of Europe and ‘tied to’ the West.
‘So it doesn’t make any sense that a week after the close of the Olympics Putin would take Crimea and start a war over Ukraine. So one has to ask oneself. Why did it happen?’”
Quotation from
Julaine von Mittelstaedt and Erich Follath, “Interview With Henry Kissinger, ‘Do We Achieve World Order Through Chaos or Insight?’” Der Spiegel, November 13, 2014
p.369, footnote 1460
“Far too often the Ukrainian issue is posed as a show-down: whether Ukraine joins the East or the West,” he said. “But if Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other — it should function as a bridge between them.” He said Russia was making a mistake to try to subjugate Ukraine as a satellite due to the reaction from the West. But he added that the West “must understand that, to Rus-sia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country… Ukraine has been part of Russia for centu-ries, and their histories were intertwined before then.” [He] also warned against helping western Ukrainians dominate the east, as this would surely lead eventually to civil war or break up,” and that any attempt by the Obama administration to “treat Ukraine as part of an East-West confrontation” would ruin for decades the opportunity to bring Russia into the European system.
Quotation from:
Henry Kissinger, “To settle the Ukraine crisis, start at the end,” Washington Post, March 5, 2014
p.370, footnote 1461
Security Dilemma (Spiral Model)
In international relations, the security dilemma (also referred to as the spiral model) is when the increase in one state’s security (such as increasing its military strength) leads other states to fear for their own security (because they do not know if the security-increasing state intends to use its growing military for offensive purposes).[1][2] Consequently, security-increasing measures can lead to tensions, escalation or conflict with one or more other parties, producing an outcome which no party truly desires; a political instance of the prisoner’s dilemma.
“[The Ukraine crisis did not begin with a bold Russian move or even a series of illegitimate Russian demands; it began when the United States and European Union tried to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and into the West’s sphere of influence.”
“Moscow made it abundantly clear it would fight this process tooth and nail. U.S. leaders blithely ignored these warnings - which clearly stemmed from Russian insecurity rather than territorial greed — and not surprisingly they have been blindsided by Moscow’s reaction.”
Stephen M. Walt, “Why Arming Kiev Is a Really, Really Bad Idea,” Foreign Policy, February 9, 2015
p.370, footnote 1463
