Bi-Weekly Discussion - Understanding the Ukraine Crisis

Hosted by Brian B.

Super Organizer

Philadelphia Political Agnostics

Details

This is going to be an online meetup using Zoom. If you've never used Zoom before, don't worry — it's easy to use and free to join.

Here's the link to the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85830425560?pwd=N0E0enBsZ3IvNmg2NU1vTmIyckoxdz09

Meeting ID: 858 3042 5560
Passcode: 955565

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UNDERSTANDING THE UKRAINE CONFLICT & THE "NEW COLD WAR" THROUGH THE LENSES OF I.R. THEORY & U.S. POLITICS

INTRODUCTION:

In this meetup, we'll discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the "New Cold War" between NATO & Russia, along with its implications. We'll use the 4 major schools of thought in International Relations (i.e. Liberal, Critical, Realist, Constructivist) to try to understand the Ukraine conflict, and we'll compare them with the range of reactions to the conflict we've seen among scholars, journalists & pundits across the political spectrum.

In the 1st section, we'll look at the Ukraine conflict through a liberal IR lens and compare this to the center-left views we often with pundits in most of the mainstream new media outlets like the NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, and "Big Three" networks (ABC, CBS, NBC). The general idea is that Russian invasion of Ukraine represents a threat to the "liberal international order" and must be stopped.

In the 2nd section, we'll look at the Ukraine conflict through a critical IR lens and compare this to the radical left views we see at some alternative media outlets like Jacobin, but also occasionally at The Nation and MSNBC. The general idea is that Putin's Russia is predatory but so is the American-led "liberal international order" and the latter is not worth defending because it's inherently racist, sexist, and colonialist.

In the 3rd section, we'll look at the Ukraine conflict through a realist IR lens and compare this to the "America First" view of many Republicans in the post-Trump era, particularly among pundits on Fox News. The general idea is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was caused by a foolish expansion of NATO & America's national interest dictates we should try to bring an end to it by reassuring Putin we'll allow him to maintain a "sphere of influence" in Ukraine & perhaps the rest of Eastern Europe.

In the 4th section, we'll look at the Ukraine conflict through a constructivist IR lens and compare this to the views of many right-wing populists who see the war as both a "clash of civilizations" and a clash of political ideologies. The general idea is that the "liberal international order" is decadent and deserves to die, and that Putin's Russia represents a rejection of liberalism and a renewal of conservatism that we should welcome.

RELATED MATERIAL FROM PAST MEETUPS:

In our last discussion on Mar. 6 entitled "Are We Headed For World War 3?", the 1st section looked at how the declining power of Russia and declining popular support for Putin could be making Russia more militarily aggressive, and what can be done to deter this aggression without escalating to direct military conflict.
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/284346998/

Back in Mar. 2021, we had a meetup entitled "Can The "Liberal International Order" Be Saved?" and in Part 3 we discussed the uncertain future of NATO, whether Pax Americana was truly "liberal" since it often depended on propping up friendly dictators, and whether "Mutually Assured Destruction" was responsible for the so-called "Long Peace" (i.e. absence of direct wars between the great powers) after WWII.
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/dwjgdsyccfbsb/

Back in Nov. 2019, we had a meetup entitled "What Causes War?", which looked at realist theories about war like the "bargaining model" and "deterrence theory", as well as constructivist theories about the psychological & cultural causes of war like cognitive biases, media hype, militaristic honor culture, and/or ethnic & religious tensions: https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/txqhxqyzpbfb/

DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:

The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of some of the major debates over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles & watch all the videos prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section - the videos come to about about 54 minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.

In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.

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I. THE "NEOLIBERAL" I.R. VIEW OF UKRAINE/RUSSIA & ITS IMPACT ON THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

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1a) Stephen Walt, "Liberal illusions and the Russian invasion of Ukraine" (video - 5:03 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plmn68XX7Iw

1b) MSNBC w/ "Democrats Divided Over Response To Russian Conflict" (video - 10:18 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p54tAChz_sc

Francis Fukuyama, "Putin's war on the liberal order: Democratic values were already under threat around the world before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now we need to rekindle the spirit of 1989."
https://ft.com/content/d0341b51-5d0e-4132-9f97-c3f41c7d75b3
Stephen Walt, "Liberal Illusions Caused the Ukraine Crisis: The greatest tragedy about Russia's potential invasion is how easily it could have been avoided."
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/19/ukraine-russia-nato-crisis-liberal-illusions/
Matthew Daly, "Ukraine war upends Biden’s agenda on energy, climate change"
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-climate-joe-biden-business-environment-and-nature-e83ccfcbf49ed48e9de8812cd920981e
Matt Phillips, "The dollar remains the West's ace in the hole"
https://www.axios.com/the-dollar-remains-the-wests-ace-in-the-hole-6252b75c-edf1-45e5-8599-b98944425ea0.html

II. THE "CRITICAL" I.R. VIEW OF UKRAINE/RUSSIA & ITS IMPACT ON THE PROGRESSIVE LEFT

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2a) The Nation w/ Michael Hudson, Jeffrey Sommers, and James Carden, "The IMF Won't Save Ukraine" (video - 6:55 min)
https://youtu.be/85atPgAJmtM

2b) MSNBC w/ Frankie Edozien, "Comparing The Coverage Of War in Europe Versus War in Africa" (video - 5:18 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlxGhGtNL60

Alexander Reed Kelly, "Ukraine Is In Crisis. Here's Why the West Can't Save It: A video rountable explains why the IMF, Europe, and Western corporations don't have the country's best interests at heart."
https://thenation.com/article/ukraine-crisis-heres-why-west-cant-save-it/
Moustafa Bayoumi, "They are ‘civilised’ and ‘look like us’: the racist coverage of Ukraine"
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/02/civilised-european-look-like-us-racist-coverage-ukraine
Sarah Jones, "Russia Tests the American Left"
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/03/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-tests-the-american-left.html
Jess Crispin, "Putin’s toxic masculinity: Identity politics won't save Ukraine"
https://unherd.com/2022/03/putins-toxic-masculinity/

III. THE "NEOREALIST" I.R. VIEW OF UKRAINE/RUSSIA & ITS IMPACT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

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3a) TLDR News, "Is the West to Blame for Russia's Invasion?" (video - 11:39 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I-91IFhHJk

3b) News Nation, "Why are conservatives split on Ukraine?" (video - 5:22 min)
https://youtu.be/SwIDJdOokAY

Isaac Chotiner, "Why John Mearsheimer Blames the US for the Crisis in Ukraine"
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-john-mearsheimer-blames-the-us-for-the-crisis-in-ukraine
Daniel W. Dezner, "Can realism explain the war in Ukraine? When an elegant theory collides with a messy reality"
https://washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/03/can-realism-explain-war-ukraine/
Richard J. Shinder, "Who will define the national interest?"
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/596210-who-will-define-the-national-interest
Rich Lowry, "Trump didn't cause the Ukraine war"
https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/03/trump-didnt-cause-the-ukraine-war/

IV. THE "POST-LIBERAL CONSTRUCTIVIST" I.R. VIEW OF UKRAINE/RUSSIA & ITS IMPACT ON THE RADICAL RIGHT

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4a) Unherd w/ Marlene Laruelle, "Investigating Aleksandr Dugin and the 'soul of Russia'" (video - 33:29 min, start at 1:30 & listen to 6:00)
https://youtu.be/Wxt5UVfM28Y&t=90s

4b) CNN w/ S.E. Cupp, "Putin is owning the far right, and they don't even know it" (video - 5:22 min)
https://youtu.be/4YjCfqmNr4M

Giles Fraser, "Putin’s spiritual destiny: The religious president wants to rebuild Christendom"
https://unherd.com/2022/02/putins-spiritual-destiny/
Marlene LaRuelle, "The intellectual origins of Putin's invasion: There is no Rasputin in the modern Russian court"
https://unherd.com/2022/03/the-brains-behind-the-russian-invasion/
Kamil Galeev, "Why Russia will lose this war"
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1497993363076915204.html
Eric Kaufmann, "Populists Are Losing This War: Making excuses for Putin shames conservatives"
https://unherd.com/2022/03/populists-are-losing-this-war/
Soharb Amari, "Who's Against the West? Liberal commentators read too much into Western populists' unwillingness to wage war with Russia."
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/whos-against-the-west/
Robert J. Lieber, "The New Strategic Narcissists: Sohrab Amari, Patrick Deneen, and Gladdin Pappin adopt 'blame America first' sentiment from the old Left."
https://americanpurpose.com/articles/the-new-strategic-narcissists/

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Philadelphia Political Agnostics

Bi-Weekly Discussion - Understanding the Ukraine Crisis

Philadelphia Political Agnostics

Details

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