One thought on “Lex Fridman Interviews John Mearsheimer on Russia-Ukraine, NATO, China, Israel-Palestine and WWIII”
thx!
on 1:25:00 –
In the light of the Truman Doctrine (speaking of doctrines) – the installation of the NSC, Kennan losing the power struggle against hawk Nitze (Kennan being no peacenik himself) over NSC, NSC core document “NSC-68” from 1950 providing the red thread for all of US hegemonic posture thereafter, and the CIA´s use of UKR terrorist networks since 1950s – UKR keeping WMDs wouldn´t have kept NATO at bay. It made no difference.
The idea of Ukraine being a gateway to Russia´s vulnerable belly has been a strategic fact since WWII at latest. So the US did not come up with instrumentalizing UKR only after they gave up those WMDs. UKR had been regarded as a “tool” much earlier.
Thus UKR WMDs would have made no difference to NATO.
In fact here Mearsheimer contradicts his own logic:
After all RU never wanted to get into a UKR (with or without WMDs). And NATO always wanted RU destroyed ( UKR with or without WMDs), since 1949. And since NATO moved, never RU.
thx!
on 1:25:00 –
In the light of the Truman Doctrine (speaking of doctrines) – the installation of the NSC, Kennan losing the power struggle against hawk Nitze (Kennan being no peacenik himself) over NSC, NSC core document “NSC-68” from 1950 providing the red thread for all of US hegemonic posture thereafter, and the CIA´s use of UKR terrorist networks since 1950s – UKR keeping WMDs wouldn´t have kept NATO at bay. It made no difference.
The idea of Ukraine being a gateway to Russia´s vulnerable belly has been a strategic fact since WWII at latest. So the US did not come up with instrumentalizing UKR only after they gave up those WMDs. UKR had been regarded as a “tool” much earlier.
Thus UKR WMDs would have made no difference to NATO.
In fact here Mearsheimer contradicts his own logic:
After all RU never wanted to get into a UKR (with or without WMDs). And NATO always wanted RU destroyed ( UKR with or without WMDs), since 1949. And since NATO moved, never RU.
On the Budapest Memo:
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/01/02/what-if-ukraine-had-kept-its-nuclear-weapons/
2022 John Hopkins study on Budapest Memo, “Inheriting the Bomb”:
https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12715/inheriting-bomb
interview with the author, Budjerin:
https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2022-04/interviews/when-ukraine-traded-nuclear-weapons-security-assurances-interview-mariana