Does Anyone Still Understand the ‘Security Dilemma’?
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/07/26/misperception-security-dilemma-ir-theory-russia-ukraine/
Stephen Walt on the ‘security dilemma’:
“… each side’s efforts to deal with what it regards as a potential security problem merely reinforced the other side’s own security fears, thereby triggering a response that strengthened the former’s original concerns. Each side sees what it is doing as purely defensive reaction to the other side’s behavior, and identifying “who started it” soon becomes effectively impossible.
The key insight is that aggressive behavior—such as the use of force—does not necessarily arise from evil or aggressive motivations (i.e., the pure desire for wealth, glory, or power for its own sake). Yet when leaders believe their own motives are purely defensive and that this fact should be obvious to others (as the NATO video described above suggests), they will tend to see an opponent’s hostile reaction as evidence of greed, innate belligerence, or an evil foreign leader’s malicious and unappeasable ambitions. Empathy goes out the window, and diplomacy soon becomes a competition in name-calling”.
The rouble is soaring and Putin is stronger than ever - our sanctions have backfired
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/29/putin-ruble-west-sanctions-russia-europe
The hard truth: Ukraine has left both the West and Russia reeling
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/29/hard-truth-ukraine-has-left-west-russia-reeling/
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/07/26/misperception-security-dilemma-ir-theory-russia-ukraine/
Stephen Walt on the ‘security dilemma’:
“… each side’s efforts to deal with what it regards as a potential security problem merely reinforced the other side’s own security fears, thereby triggering a response that strengthened the former’s original concerns. Each side sees what it is doing as purely defensive reaction to the other side’s behavior, and identifying “who started it” soon becomes effectively impossible.
The key insight is that aggressive behavior—such as the use of force—does not necessarily arise from evil or aggressive motivations (i.e., the pure desire for wealth, glory, or power for its own sake). Yet when leaders believe their own motives are purely defensive and that this fact should be obvious to others (as the NATO video described above suggests), they will tend to see an opponent’s hostile reaction as evidence of greed, innate belligerence, or an evil foreign leader’s malicious and unappeasable ambitions. Empathy goes out the window, and diplomacy soon becomes a competition in name-calling”.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/29/putin-ruble-west-sanctions-russia-europe
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/29/hard-truth-ukraine-has-left-west-russia-reeling/