Why the U.S. Misjudged Ukraine — The Influence of Russian Imperial Narratives on U.S. Policy скачать в хорошем качестве

Why the U.S. Misjudged Ukraine — The Influence of Russian Imperial Narratives on U.S. Policy

Yale Professor Timothy Snyder testifies before the U.S. Helsinki Commission at its hearing on Russia's Imperial Identity. In this segment, Snyder explores the connection between Russian empire and the way the United States has thought about the Russo-Ukrainian war. Snyder suggests that many Americans are aware of Russia's big history, big literature, and big past, such that many Americans imbibe the Russian imperial narrative according to which other peoples were secondary, irrelevant, troublemakers, nationalists to somehow be dismissed. He believes this helps account for the misjudgments that Americans made in general in February 2022 when we took for granted as a society and as a polity that Ukraine would break within a few days when Russia invaded. Snyder suggests that Americans have seriously underestimated the potential of Ukrainian Armed Forces and the potential of Ukrainian society partly because they have taken in imperial assumptions themselves. He suggests that the Russians have been able to control the strategic discourse, setting up for us new rules in war, which have never existed before. Like, for example, that when you invade another country, the entire war should take place on the territory the country you've invaded. He notes that no one has ever said that before because it's completely absurd, and yet somehow it's been accepted in the United States as normal that this war should be fought on Ukrainian territory. He says that another idea that the Russians have that we've accepted is that it's normal, for example, for ballistic missiles to rain down on Kyiv, but it's somehow not normal for ballistic missiles from Ukraine to go into Russia. Snyder believes it has a great deal to do with imperial thinking, which we have accepted. He says that people think there's something precious, special about Russia, and somehow it's okay for Ukrainians to be victims because they always have been victims. He says we need to investigate that understructure of thinking, which he believes has guided U.S. policy in the wrong way. Finally, he suggests that the Ukrainians are right when they tell us that the Russians are going to negotiate peace when they believe they are losing. He suggests that if anyone is serious about negotiation, that that person should be trying to get the Russians into a position where they think they might be losing. He says the Ukrainians get that, but they're having a really hard time making us understand that. He says that when they talk about a victory plan or a peace plan, what they mean is together, the West and Ukraine, do enough to get Russia to a point where it might negotiate sincerely. Timothy Snyder is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. A scholar of history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust, Snyder speaks five and reads ten European languages, has written 16 books, including six on Ukraine, and co-edited two. His work, published in forty languages, has inspired political demonstrations, sculpture, posters, punk rock, rap, film, theater, opera, and earned him six state orders and decorations from Austria, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland, four honorary doctorates, and numerous prizes and awards. Snyder writes and speaks in the international press on Ukraine, American politics, strategies for averting authoritarianism, digital politics, health, and education, also appearing in documentaries, on network television, in major films, and as an expert witness to Congress. He is an ambassador to United 24 where he launched the Safe Skies fund for military defense of Ukraine. Snyder leads 90 scholars in the Ukrainian History Global Initiative, a charitable foundation for research on prehistory of Ukrainian lands, the spread of Indo-European languages, international relations, nation building, and imperialism.