According to John Mearsheimer, the concept of global justice does not exist in international relations. The global political order has never been governed by any standard of justice. Political realism means that way. The Great Powers dominate the world on the basis of their military might and technological superiority.
The brutal reality is that there is an imbalance in political power, and as a result, millions have been displaced in major conflicts and thousands of lives have been sacrificed because of military actions and political positioning by dominant states, all because the Great Powers compete for hegemony. This has been the case since the Roman Empire. Rome was all about power and with it, controlling the world.
The reality of power is a puzzle to many. Stephen Walt explains that “the Great Powers act in terrible ways.” Political realism teaches that states will only cooperate with other states if there is some mutual advantage. Walt argues that when it comes to powerful states, “the idea that others must threaten them in the future makes them worry about their security and lead them to compete for power.”
Put into context, the background to Russia’s war in Ukraine started in a 2008 Conference in which the trans-Atlantic alliance appears to welcome its expansion near Russia’s border by considering Ukraine’s possible inclusion into North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Russian President Vladimir Putin used what he called an “existential threat” as the pretext to start his war against Ukraine. Walt thinks that condemning Putin won’t be much of help. The behavior of Great Powers is not founded on any moral precept. It is rooted in how they react, using military strength or economic leverage, when a vital interest is threatened.
Mearsheimer, the most influential International Relations theorist today, argues that there is a security competition between states, which currently explains the situation in Eastern Europe, the South China Sea, and the Korean Peninsula. States are aggressive, just like the case of Russia, in order to maintain their position. The same is done by enhancing one’s power and diminishing that of their enemies.
In contrast, Mearsheimer explains how Western liberalism wants to control the world by imposing democracy on certain states, promoting a global free market economy. Mearsheimer argues, as what happened in Iraq and recently, in Afghanistan, that the strategy employed by the US failed because of ethnic nationalism. Groups adhere to their faith, beliefs, values, and tradition. The imposition of Western paradigms, in this way, is seen as inimical to the way of life of local folks and seen as adversarial to their sense of identity.
Walt says that Putin, “bears accountability for this war, liberals have produced the opposite results by dismissing Putin’s protests.” In a 2016 talk at the University of Chicago, Mearsheimer, explains that the Ukraine war was a result of fundamental and precipitating causes. The primary cause, he alleges, appears to be the expansionist paradigm of NATO.
The events in Ukraine sometime in 2014 precipitated the resolve of Putin to invade the country. Mearsheimer thinks that the changing of the regime in Ukraine in 2014 caused Putin’s so called “war of choice.” The greater danger, of course, is that Putin is ready, willing, and able to escalate this conflict should NATO intervene. Russia, being a nuclear state, possesses around 40% of the nuclear stockpile in the world.
Walt notes, however, that Putin may have miscalculated the political resolve of Ukrainians, especially its young and charismatic president. Zelensky has vowed to stay the course and die with his soldiers to protect Ukraine. The West, in fact, bears the moral obligation to support him, but is also aware of the risks that a nuclear war can bring into the continent. Indeed, there is no justification for the Russian invasion. Walt thinks that Putin also overcalculated the “West’s hostility towards Russia.” Putin’s biggest mistake, so far, is thinking, that “this war will be swift and easy”.
According to Walt, the biggest dilemma for the West is how to stop Putin. The economic sanctions have not deterred Putin, who has vowed defying Western sanctions. Walt argues that “sanctions are ways of weaponizing interdependence, but they do not change the resolve of an aggressor.”
