Proceedings of The 8th International Academic Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Analysis of Russia-Ukraine War in the Context of International Relations System
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Muhittin Tolga Özsağlam
ABSTRACT:
After demise of the Soviet Union, international relations system has evolved from bipolarity to unipolarity. The western institutions (NATO etc) and their liberal values dominated international relations system until mid-2000s. Afterwards, Russia and China have started to challenge the process by using their economic, political and military powers in newly emerged international institutions, such as Collective Security Treaty Organization, Eurasian Economic Union, Shanghai Cooperation Organization etc.
Russia tries to maximise its political power by using its presence in UN Security Council as a permanent member. Additional to this, energy sector is used as a foreign policy instrument of Russia which is combined with geopolitical priorities. Under these circumstances, Russia has securitized enlargement of NATO towards Black Sea region and reacted this process in Russia-Georgia War in 2008 and then annexed Crimea and supported the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk republics. Such reactions of Russia indicate that joining of Ukraine to NATO and presence of NATO in Black Sea region are the ‘’red lines’’ of Russian foreign policy.
Eventually, this study analyses the reasons and results of Russia-Ukraine War in the context of International Relations System.
keywords: Multipolarity, NATO, Black Sea, Geopolitics, Offensive Realism