PURSUING (IN)SECURITY: IMPLICATIONS OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN UKRAINE

This paper articulates the strategic goals that propelled Russian military intervention in the Crimean peninsula and eastern Ukraine, as well as their implications for international security. It argues that Russian military intervention proceeds from the intention of the Putin administration to recover the geopolitical assets lost by Russia upon the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Such a desire has become a core tenet of Russian grand strategy under the Putin administration, and represents a clear threat to the territorial integrity of all former Soviet countries. Finally, this paper characterizes the military confrontation in Ukraine as having reached a unstable equilibrium, as Russia has essentially failed to accomplish its strategic objectives in Ukraine. As a result, it predicts a further escalation of the conflict to be very likely.