Introduction
There is a vast number of challenging questions that are considered eternal because people fail to find exact and truthful answers to them. One such question is why states start wars and participate in them. Numerous people across the globe wish to live peacefully and are indifferent to politics, so they also do not support their authorities engaging in military and aggressive actions. The recent tension between Russia and the U.S. and NATO over Ukraine exemplifies a challenging situation with many factors, impacts, and views. This case can be explored in terms of the three levels of analysis, which include individual, state, and system levels of explanation of the war.
Analysis
Individual Level
Firstly, the individual level contains factors related to human nature. According to researchers, Russia and Vladimir Putin, as its President, feared NATO’s expansion to the east and felt a threat from Ukraine, potentially helping NATO gain more influence (“Why Does Russia Don’t Want Ukraine to Join NATO?”, 2022). Therefore, Russia’s actions were provoked not only by the inborn aggression of its leaders but also by their fears.
Following the frustration-aggression theory, the state’s leadership observed that NATO ruined their plans, which caused their violent reaction. Additionally, this level also refers to the organizational component and the concept of groupthink. As indicated by Downer (2023), Putin’s administration hoped that the groupthink of the Western countries would make the states accept Russia’s invasion and violence. However, the West eliminated its groupthink and decided to resist Russia’s unethical and illegal actions.
State Level
Further, discussing the state level of the military conflict is essential. According to this system of analysis, dictators are more eager to engage in wars than democratic leaders. Although Russia is considered a democratic state, researchers note that dictators actually lead it or are currently on the path to severe control and dictatorship (Fischer, 2022). People have no political power and have to pay for the military conflict with NATO and Ukraine.
Next, following Marxism, capitalist countries always seek to expand abroad and can choose aggressive and violent methods (Warnecke-Berger, 2020). Since capitalism is considered to be relatively strong in Russia, it is not surprising that it chose to invade Ukraine and start a military conflict with the West (Flounders, 2022). One might also suggest that Russia sought to keep its internal regimen secure, which is why it invaded Ukraine and showed aggression toward other states involved in the conflict. The impact of NATO and Western values in Ukraine would potentially damage the Russian dictatorship, so the country’s leadership decided to address this threat.
System Level
Lastly, the system level of analysis concerns the international relationships and factors that might have resulted in the war. According to a respected Professor of Political Science from the University of Chicago, “the United States has pushed forward policies toward Ukraine that Putin and his colleagues see as an existential threat to their country” (Mearsheimer, 2022, para. 3).
Conclusion
Therefore, the conflicting relationships between Russia and Western countries, especially the U.S., resulted in a lack of trust, alliance, and possibility of peaceful solutions. NATO got in the middle of the long-lasting tensions between Ukraine and Russia, and many states chose to support the former, thus deteriorating international relations with the latter. Thus, “the taproot of the crisis is the American-led effort to make Ukraine a Western bulwark on Russia’s borders” (Mearsheimer, 2022, para. 19). The situation would be different if NATO or the U.S. specifically considered Russia’s position.
References
Downer, A. (2023). The year the West woke up from pacifist groupthink. The Australian Financial Review. Web.
Fischer, S. (2022). Russia on the road to dictatorship. Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. Web.
Flounders, S. (2022). Capitalist Russia: A target, not a superpower. Workers World. Web.
Mearsheimer, J. J. (2022). The causes and consequences of the Ukraine war. CIRSD. Web.
Warnecke-Berger, H. (2020). Capitalism, rents, and the transformation of violence. International Studies, 57(2), 111-131. Web.
Why does Russia don’t want Ukraine to join NATO? (2022). Marca. Web.