POST-SOVIET SOVEREIGNTY AND UKRAINE’S POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
Mikhail (Mykhailo) Minakov2021, Ukraine Analytica
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Abstract
In a realistic analysis of the status of national sovereignty of Ukraine and other post-Soviet states, the author argues that Russian aggression against Ukraine, post-Soviet frozen conflicts, and the U.S.-Russia antagonism have established the political, legal and military macrocontext in which Ukraine can develop for the foreseeable future. In this context, Ukraine can maintain its existing and even regain its pre-2014 level of sovereignty if it develops either as a buffer zone between the EU/West and Russia, or as NATO’s battering ram. The author concludes that the new Eastern Europe will remain a region of damaged national sovereignties with a high chance for new conflicts and poor chances for stable peace and socio-economic prosperity.
Key takeaways
- This paper will argue that multilevel disputes over the notion of sovereignty are directly connected to the current disorder in Eastern Europe and will describe how it damages Ukraine's sovereignty and prospects for development.
- Meanwhile, the sovereignty of the state was more and more outweighed by the increasing sovereignty of the human individual and the growing role of human rights within and among states.
- By 2009, when the EU introduced its Eastern Partnership policy, the Eastern Neighbourhood region was a constellation of states with damaged state sovereignty:
- In short, developmental dynamics and the national interest have changed: as a state with contested sovereignty over part of its territory, Ukraine cannot develop as a bridge anymore.
- If this model continues to be applied, Ukraine's sovereignty will follow.
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