Why Ukraine MattersFrancis Fukuyama
February 26, 2022
Vladimir Putin has launched a massive military assault on Ukraine, with the stated purpose of overthrowing the democratically-elected regime there and replacing it with one subservient to Moscow. Russian forces have arrived in the suburbs of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Ukraine is a country I know well. My center at Stanford University has run a series of leadership training programs for mid-career Ukrainian activists and officials who are trying to reform their country, and I have visited to teach there many times. Ukraine suffers from high levels of corruption, but my personal experience has convinced me that there is a rising new generation of Ukrainians imbued with democratic values, and who want to join Europe rather than a kleptocratic Russia. I take the invasion very personally: many of my friends—human rights activists, journalists, anti-corruption campaigners—would be the first targets of a pro-Moscow regime were it to come to power.
Prior to the invasion, many observers believed that Putin was bluffing and that the Biden administration was hyping the threat. The Russian troop buildup and Russian propaganda revived the long-standing discussion in Europe and the US of how NATO expansion threatened Russia, and that the United States was in part responsible for the present situation. There were calls from many “realists” to grant Russia a sphere of influence over the territory of the former USSR, and to negotiate the neutralization of Ukraine.
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We are currently at a critical juncture in world history. If Putin succeeds in overthrowing democracy in Ukraine and replacing it with a puppet regime, he will have set a terrible precedent for the use of naked force. China will take a cue from this, as it contemplates options for re-incorporating Taiwan. The US and NATO will have been humiliated, and a signal will go out across the world that American promises of support are hollow and cooperation among democracies non-existent.
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Source:
https://quillette.com/2022/02/26/why-ukraine-matters/
