Does "Realism" Explain The Ukraine War? | A Reply To Mearsheimer скачать в хорошем качестве

Does "Realism" Explain The Ukraine War? | A Reply To Mearsheimer

A reply to John Mearsheimer and all those blaming the West and NATO expansion for war. One of Putin's stated reasons for launching the invasion of Ukraine is to stop it from joining NATO, arguing this would be an unacceptable threat to Russia's security. Surprisingly, this argument has found many supporters in the West, the most prominent of whom is the academic John Mearsheimer. For many years he has consistently blamed the West for the conflicts in Ukraine, and his 2015 talk on this theme has now been viewed 25 million times on YouTube. This video sets out Mearsheimer's argument, presents my case against him, and explains the idea from international relations that lies at the root of his thinking: realism. It's an idea, like all in IDEAS THAT EXPLAIN THE NEWS, that explains what's going on at a deeper level and will be useful to you long after the current situation has ended. Sign up for email updates! https://brendanmiller.substack.com/ I'm usually making films for other publishers so don’t get a chance to produce for YouTube very often. This is the best way to hear about new projects. SOURCES == John Mearsheimer == 2015 talk -    • Why is Ukraine the West's Fault? Feat...   3 Mar 2022 talk to Committee for the Republic -    • Putin's Invasion of Ukraine Salon | R...   15 Feb 2022 talk to King's College, Cambridge -    • PROFESSOR JOHN MEARSHEIMER: THE CRISI...   COMMON QUESTIONS Does Mearsheimer really blame the West 100%? As I understand it, Mearsheimer blames the West 100% for the Ukraine conflict. This is clear from several of his lectures but one example comes in this talk    • Putin's Invasion of Ukraine Salon | R...   at 26:16: “And again, we go back to where we started. Who bears responsibility for this? Do the Russians bear responsibility for this? I don't think so. There's no question the Russians are doing the dirty work. I don't want to make light of that fact. But the question is what caused the Russians to do this? And in my opinion, the answer is very simple. The United States of America.” It’s worth noting that he is invited by one of the other speakers to assign blame more evenly (discussion of “comparative negligence” at 1:29:03 but Mearsheimer is happy to be understood as West is 100% to blame). In fact, at 4:00 he sets out his meta-view on these kinds of questions, which is that you can either blame the Russians or the West. “It's very important to understand that who caused this situation is of tremendous importance because it involves assigning blame. You really have two choices here. You can argue that the West and especially the United States, caused the crisis, or you can argue that the Russians caused the crisis. But that means that whoever you argue caused the crisis is responsible for this disaster, and it is important to understand that this is a disaster.” So this is my understanding of his position. If this is not actually his position, or if he has updated his views then I’d be happy to hear that. I don’t have much affection for the man, but it’s his arguments I’m challenging here. If you agree that blaming the West 100% is mad, then I’m happy to hear that, regardless of what Mearsheimer said. Does Mearsheimer really blame Ukraine? Not mainly, but he does include them. It's true his main focus is on the West. In fact, that's part of the problem. He's always talking as if NATO expansion is driven by the West and makes no space for the fact these countries were often leading the process because of their (turns out justified) fears of Russian aggression. However, the few times he does give Ukraine some agency he does lump them in with the West who he blames for the attack. For example, here    • Putin's Invasion of Ukraine Salon | R...   he says "My view is that Ukraine should have long ago divorced itself from the United States and worked out a modus vivendi with Russia. My view is if you're a reasonably small power in the international system and you live next door to a gorilla, you have to go to great lengths to accommodate that gorilla. And the last thing you want to do is poke that gorilla in the eye because the gorilla will do great damage to you."