Ukraine-Russian Federation Relations within the Concepts of Security Dilemma and Responsibility To Protect (R2P)

Abstract

Since the early ages of history, the need to feel safe in human beings has emerged and the instinct to act collectively for the purpose of self-protection has settled. This collective movement motive has led to the construction of identities and states over time. Many approaches in the discipline of international relations examine the formation processes of the states, which were built with the aim of establishing the need for this environment of trust. However, as can be seen from history, these institutions could not provide the establishment of security sufficiently and as a matter of fact, the wars experienced throughout history became the evidence of the atmosphere of this insecurity causing the concepts of “security dilemma” and “responsibility to protect (R2P)” to take their place in international relations discipline. The aim of this article is to figure out the relations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation within portrayed concepts in light of the events after the annexation of Crimea. With this purpose, it is aimed to reach a resolution whether the conflict can be explained within the concepts of the security dilemma and R2P as Russia claims or Russian Federation’s “special military operation” to Ukraine is rationalized in line with Russia’s revisionist attitude stemming from its Eurasian ideologies. In this article, the case study approach is used that enables an in-depth analysis of the subject.