ID | 184553 |
Title Proper | What Went Wrong? |
Language | ENG |
Author | Müllerson, Rein |
Summary / Abstract (Note) | Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, illegal in terms of the pre-1990s international law and probably a geopolitical miscalculation, has caused a shock incomparable even with that of the 2003 American attack on Iraq that was proudly baptised Operation Shock and Awe. Remarkably, neither the twenty-year-long war in Afghanistan waged by the U.S. and its allies, nor the destruction of Libya in 2011, nor the multiple military interventions in Africa, nor even NATO’s bombardment of Serbia in 1999—the first unlawful use of force in post-WWII Europe—have caused such anger. There is always a whiff of racism in the fact that wars waged against people who have chosen to be on the “wrong side of history” are not condemned by those on “right side of history” as they must be. How did it happen that after the fall of the Berlin Wall and reasonable expectations of a peaceful future, the world found itself in a situation where the use of military force has become nearly normal unless it is used against Europeans who chose the “right side of history”? How and why, in the race towards “the end of history” the |
`In' analytical Note | Russia in Global Affairs Vol. 20, No.1; Jan-Mar 2022: p.30-49 |
Journal Source | Russia in Global Affairs Vol: 20 No 1 |
Key Words | Balance of power ; NATO Expansion ; Dangers Of Unilinear Interpretation Of History ; War In Ukraine ; Military Alliances Vs Collective Security ; 1815 Vienna Congress vs 1919 Treaty of Versailles. |