Russia in the Ukraine Crisis: Great Power Policy and Aggressive Realist Dynamics

In this book, an analysis of the Ukraine Crisis has been carried out with a focus on Russia. While explaining the policy followed by Russia during the crisis, it was thought that a conceptual/theoretical framework regarding the specific characteristics of great power politics at the regional level was necessary. The basic assumptions of the Aggressive Realist theory were used while explaining the behavior pattern of the great powers in the context of regional security or close geography sensitivity. By making use of the process tracking method, Russia's policy during the Ukraine Crisis was examined in two parts. Firstly, the Ukraine Crisis was discussed in the context of social and political tensions in Ukraine. With the discussions presented here, it has been tried to explain the exit process of the crisis. Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for the armed separatist movement that emerged in eastern Ukraine were the issues discussed in the second phase of the crisis.
It is a fact that enough weight is not given to the Ukraine Crisis in the field of international relations in Turkey. Although this crisis, which started in 2013, was initially shown to be related to the heat of the developments, this interest gradually decreased with the advancing time. This is an important reason why the Ukraine Crisis is on its way to becoming a frozen problem. As a matter of fact, with the awareness of this, this book focuses on the intense period of the crisis between 2014 and 2016. Despite everything, the Ukraine Crisis is an event that should not fall into the background as a geopolitical tension that directly or directly affects regions such as Europe, the Black Sea and the Caucasus. Based on the importance of this event, this book aims to offer a comprehensive perspective to readers who are interested in the Ukraine Crisis by blending current-political and theoretical perspectives.