The invasion of Ukraine is the culmination of a long period of increasing tension between Russia and the West, writes Richard Sakwa in The Loop.
What provoked the war in Ukraine? A partial answer lies in the intensification of a long-standing security dilemma.
Professor Richard Sakwa argues that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the culmination of a long period of increasing tensions between Russia and the West in the ECPR’s Political Science Blog ‘The Loop‘ with ‘competition over status and identity’ also playing their part. That the West not only ignored the portents, but misunderstood them. Russian security concerns thus became part of a broader cultural alienation.
‘Security concerns intersected with identity issues to stoke a revolt against liberal modernity. Russia condemns the West for expansion into what it considers its own security sphere, and denounces it as the antithesis of Russia’s traditional culture and civilisation.’
Read the full piece here.