Documentary | Putin’s Path from Potential Friend to Mortal Enemy: Fate or Mistake?
Zooming In with Simone Gao
Now that the war has started, what is the real good and right thing to do? Is it condemning #Putin , doubling down on sanctions, providing weapons to #Ukraine , championing Ukrainian people’s bravery and patriotism and then returning to the Cold War pattern against Russia? I agree that some of these things are what we have to do now. But we should not limit our thinking and actions to these aspects because if we do, the same tragedy might happen again in the near future since the underlying cause of this war has not been addressed, let alone eliminated. What are the underlying causes of this war? I would like to raise a question: Could the precursor of this war be a series of long term US foreign policy fallacies? For instance, the misconception that the balance of power policy is no longer in play which led to the continuous NATO expansion, this is the theory of realist #JohnMearsheimer ; then lack of prudence, resolve and consistency in responding to the Russian aggression against other eastern European countries; and, finally, clumsiness in differentiating potential allies from foes. In other words, did we pick the wrong enemy? In the next few episodes of our in-depth report, we will focus on one topic at a time. In the first episode, we will explore how a potential friend turned into a mortal enemy and whether the balance of power politics is still relevant today.
Zooming In with Simone Gao
Now that the war has started, what is the real good and right thing to do? Is it condemning #Putin , doubling down on sanctions, providing weapons to #Ukraine , championing Ukrainian people’s bravery and patriotism and then returning to the Cold War pattern against Russia? I agree that some of these things are what we have to do now. But we should not limit our thinking and actions to these aspects because if we do, the same tragedy might happen again in the near future since the underlying cause of this war has not been addressed, let alone eliminated. What are the underlying causes of this war? I would like to raise a question: Could the precursor of this war be a series of long term US foreign policy fallacies? For instance, the misconception that the balance of power policy is no longer in play which led to the continuous NATO expansion, this is the theory of realist #JohnMearsheimer ; then lack of prudence, resolve and consistency in responding to the Russian aggression against other eastern European countries; and, finally, clumsiness in differentiating potential allies from foes. In other words, did we pick the wrong enemy? In the next few episodes of our in-depth report, we will focus on one topic at a time. In the first episode, we will explore how a potential friend turned into a mortal enemy and whether the balance of power politics is still relevant today.
