Ukraine and Russia conflict - Essay Example

Introduction: The Ukraine crisis that started early in created tension in the global politics in the context of Europe’s stance over Russia’s interventionist policies. The standoff has given rise to a debate regarding Russia’s intentions and its possible repetition of Cold War tactics and gaining on more ground and more resources in the region. The Crimean question along with the aims of establishing a pro-Russian government in Ukraine are the top concerns for the European powers. The fears are felt on the account of fact that Russia might expand its grip in the region, it will not allow true democracy to prevail and since Russia itself can be termed as relatively distant from the true form of democracy, therefore the fears of possible sham democracy prevailing in the Crimea and Ukraine’s unrest are the fears expressed all over. Various political, diplomatic, financial and socially motivated steps are taken in this regard in bid to reduce the impact of Russia that is constantly surging over the surrounding states (Kosinski, p. 18). Given the fact that strategic importance, natural resources and oil are a scarce source and fast depleting, each nation is engaging and approaching the other in the context of future considerations. The Social conflict and realistic theory state this dimension of the Russian conflict and its interests in the Ukraine and Crimean region. Social and cultural context of the crisis: The crisis are not just political in the nature, rather their roots are originally rooted in the social and cultural aspect. The Crimean region consists of the population where percentage of the people is originally settled in Russia or they are affiliated in the ethnic manner with the Russian nation and its citizens. This gives the Russian government an excuse to protecting their rights as well as regaining the areas that it claims were originally theirs prior to the Cold War disintegration. The paper also looks into the domains and dimensions of this particular conflict through the perspective of the two prominent theories of political science. These include the realistic conflict theory and social dominance theory. Political crisis from theory perspective: Realistic Conflict theory: This particular theory will direct the attention towards the possible and little mentioned domain of the overall Ukraine conflict. This comes in the form of the struggle for resources, and the naval base that Russia has established around the Crimea region. The very fact that Ukraine itself is dependent and reliant upon the natural resources, supply line and gas resources which are provided to it by Russia. The very fact that Gazprom provides (PINCHUK) for the major ventures and business activities the overall episode can be correlated to the realistic conflict theory. The very fact that the global community is engaged in the battle for the natural resources dominates the perspective of the global warfare. Iran’s dispute with the global community, Iraq’s invasion, Afghanistan as a hub of the natural resources, and now Russia expanding its influence in the region and desiring to annex land for the purpose of natural resources, military expansions and naval bases support, all these make up for the practical forms of the postulates of the realistic conflict theory (Schram and Caterino, p. 169). Social dominance theory perspective: Under the social control theory perspective, Russia’s stance and actions towards Crimea and Ukraine are motivated and dominated by the desire to annex the region owing to the affiliations and ethnic population that resides in the region. The historical perspective in the context of Russia and Crimea stretches back couple of centuries and each region enjoys cultural, historic, linguistic and ethnic commonalities between them (Lange, p. 387). The peace or instability in a region and the desires of a given nation can be largely determined through the policies and actions that are tilted towards the ethnic and other affiliating factors which are merged together and presented in the form of social dominance theory where these variables are termed as influential and motivating towards undergoing a given step, action, military action, partnership or any other action associated function. The Russian action can be compared and correlated to it in the same context. Social dominance theory from the perspective of exploitation: Given the fact that Russia has all the capabilities, all the resources, the military power, funds, economy, financial strength and gains, stronger and larger forces against the weaker Ukraine government and infrastructure, it in a way dominates, and exploits the weaker and the dependent position of Ukraine. Ukraine owing to the oil dependency and other reliance on Russia has to bend down. Russia uses all these to its strength along with the claim of being ethnically and historically affiliated with the Crimea cause. The fact that Russia has a naval base and Russia deems it necessary protecting its interest, its military protection and declaring that it needs to protect itself from a possible relapse and occurrence of the Cold war activities. In the Cold war era, numbers of regional states were used against Russia, as a result more proactive and directionally motivating policies and actions are seen in practice from Russia. All these can be summed as the agents and visible faces of Russia’s social dominance theory in the political science context. While the overall event and disturbance came to a boiling point in the form of military intervention of Russia, the crisis were precipitating in the form of the political turmoil and unrest which was building against the interests of Russia. It all started with the ousted of the elected President and the overall toppling of the elected government. The sequence of events followed by the ousted resulted in building of two blocks. The West, United States of America making up for the first bloc, the second bloc in the form of Russia itself. Russia was totally against the concept of ousting the previous government while United States of America and Europe extended their support to the stance and cause of government change in the troubled region. United States of America as a similar policy of the Cold war and with aims of mitigating the influence of Russia extended military, economic and social support to Ukraine in bid to chalk out Russia’s influence. This is a similar move to the Cold War and mid 20th century where Marshal Plan and Truman Doctrine were introduced for the purpose of winning the loyalties of the European nations and reducing the impact of Russia as a whole. Current day standing: With the ousted of the elected President and democratic setup, the Russians relied upon military strength and military action and formally surged its army into Crimea, a region of strategic, economic and military importance. Crimea is the base to the Russian naval expeditions. Crimea finds considerable amount of inclination and support towards the Russians and it was due to the soft corner and stance of the locals that Russia got its goals accomplished. Soon after the process of annexation, to give Crimea the legal status and standing, referendum was held and as a result of the referendum, Crimea was declared as part of the federal unit of Russia as a whole. However considerably large part of the global community does not extend or support this move of Crimea and Russia, yet there are some factions amounting to five in total that have accepted Crimea as part of Russia formally. References: Kosinski, Tomasz. Coins of UKRAINE 1901-2014: Coins of Europe Catalog 1901-2014. Tomasz Kosinski, 2014 Lange, Paul A.M. Van. Bridging Social Psychology: Benefits of Transdisciplinary Approaches. `: Psychology Press, 2006. PINCHUK, DENIS. Gazprom to resume gas supplies. 31 oct 2014. 5 dec 2014 Schram, Sanford and Brian Caterino. Making Political Science Matter: Debating Knowledge, Research, and Method. NYU Press, 2006 Read More