By Romi Jain, CASPEGS
This article briefly examines the polarizing opinion on the outbreak of the current Ukrainian crisis while aiming to arrive at a balanced perspective in the interest of peace.
141 out of 193 UN Member States adopted a resolution on March 2, 2022 demanding that Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraw its military forces from Ukraine. The UN’s move was expected because of Russia’s violation of the UN’s peace and security principles, especially brazen in view of its stature as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Earlier, EU leaders, while extending moral and material support to Ukraine, released a statement: “Russia bears full responsibility for this act of aggression and all the destruction and loss of life it will cause. It will be held accountable for its actions.” And US President Biden stated on February 23rd, “The world will hold Russia accountable.” As far as media is concerned, an article in The Australian says “NATO was no trigger for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine,” and a Wall Street Journal article argues that “NATO expansion did not cause Putin’s war on Ukraine.” An opinion piece in NBC News wrote that Putin desired to “strengthen his grip by invading Ukraine.” In a similar vein, Channel-Justice and Lassin argue in The Print, “Putin’s claims that NATO threatens Russia’s security, and that the only way Russia will back down is if NATO promises never to admit Ukraine, is a bait and switch.”
Yet a divergent opinion places the blame on the United States and NATO for triggering the crisis by provoking Russia. The American political scientist John Mearsheimer traces the current situation to NATO’s Bucharest Summit Declaration of April 2008, which stated that Ukraine and Georgia would become NATO members. He points out, “The Russians made it unequivocally clear at the time that they viewed this as an existential threat, and they drew a line in the sand.” Writing in The Guardian, Ted Carpenter reminds one of previous predictions on ramifications of NATO’s expansion, and he squarely contends that apart from Vladimir Putin’s prime culpability, “Nato’s arrogant, tone‐deaf policy toward Russia over the past quarter‐century deserves a large share as well.” Specifically, Carpenter’s citation of remarks by then US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is striking “Many Russians see Nato as a vestige of the Cold War, inherently directed against their country. They point out that they have disbanded the Warsaw Pact, their military alliance, and ask why the west should not do the same.”
Impliedly, the issue of national security is as much critical to Russia as sovereignty is to former Soviet republics. As Jeffrey Sachs argues in The Financial Times: “The US would not be very happy were Mexico to join a China-led military alliance, nor was it content when Fidel Castro’s Cuba aligned with the USSR 60 years ago. Neither the US nor Russia wants the other’s military on their doorstep. Pledging no Nato enlargement is not appeasement. It does not cede Ukrainian territory. It does not undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty. It would in fact help to secure it.”
NATO states that it is a “defensive alliance”, that its enlargement is not targeted at Russia, and that all sovereign nations are entitled to choose their “own security arrangements.” But from the perspective of those who hold NATO’s persistent eastward expansion responsible for the present situation, it is high time NATO revisit its expansion plan to give peace a chance. Importantly, the current issue does not fit in exclusive domains of state sovereignty, freedom, liberalism, and democracy in view of the tug of logic and perspectives among disparate stakeholders. Further, the Ukrainian situation is not essentially about Western unity. It’s about global unity— for peace. And any reliance on punitive measures such as sanctions is unlikely to be effective for the cause of “sustainable” peace.
As peace activists participating in the March 6 Global Day of Action are calling for, securing peace would require embracing at least three stances: No to War in Ukraine; No to NATO expansion; Yes to Negotiations and Peace.