Offensive realism, differentiation theory, and the war in Ukraine

In this article, I shall demonstrate that several of the arguments made in favour of an offensive realist explanation of Russian actions in Ukraine as part of a power balancing process are inconsistent both with available empirical knowledge of the conflict in Ukraine and with the structural logic p...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor Principal: Kleinschmidt J.
Formato: Artículo (Article)
Lenguaje:Inglés (English)
Publicado: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. 2019
Materias:
War
Acceso en línea:https://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/22170
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-018-0150-4
Descripción
Sumario:In this article, I shall demonstrate that several of the arguments made in favour of an offensive realist explanation of Russian actions in Ukraine as part of a power balancing process are inconsistent both with available empirical knowledge of the conflict in Ukraine and with the structural logic postulated by offensive realist theory itself. Rather than a conflict about power in a material sense, I will argue that the war in Ukraine is better understood as a conflict about the incompatibility of the Russian state structure to cope with the imperatives of functional differentiation as understood by theories of world society. © 2018, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature.