Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War by Paul D’Anieri

Abstract

Reviewed by: Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War by Paul D’Anieri Simone Attilio Bellezza D’Anieri, Paul. Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 2019. xii + 282 pp. Maps. Tables. Notes. Index. £18.99 (paperback). This book, by Paul D’Anieri, vice president of the American Association of Ukrainian Studies, describes the gradual estrangement between Russia and Ukraine from its beginnings in the late 1980s until 2019. The author stipulates from the outset that this text is not a work of historical research but of political science, yet the volume’s eight chapters largely comprise historical narrative, rather than political science analysis. However, events are not narrated from the perspective of a historian, nor is the rationale behind what is chosen as a topic for analysis typical to a historian. Although significant proportion of the text is devoted to issues of international relations between Ukraine, Russia, the USA and the European Union, Ukraine and Russia could hardly be considered a treatise on diplomacy or the history of international relations. The gradual deterioration of Russian-Ukrainian relations is read in the broader context of Russian-Western relations at the end of the Cold War through the lens of the so-called ‘Security Dilemma’: when subjects under scrutiny perceive a danger and try to take action to shield themselves from external threats but, in doing so, only increase the perceived sense of threat from their neighbours, who in turn intensify their efforts to defend themselves in the event of an external threat, thus creating a vicious cycle that almost inevitably leads to confrontation. The story told by D’Anieri, however, is much more complicated than the simple juxtaposition of self-defence measures, as he takes pains to specify: while NATO’s expansion depended on fears that the failure of democratization in Russia rightly aroused in neighbouring states, post-Soviet Russia never accepted that Ukraine could become a distinct and independent nation-state, thus any measures aimed at founding and strengthening the Ukrainian state were (and are) perceived as a challenge to Russian supremacy in an area where Moscow believes it has complete sovereignty. Within this interpretative framework, established from the first chapter, the events of the last thirty years of Ukrainian history are examined. These events are interspersed — as already mentioned — by extensive analysis of international relations on critical issues which have created greater friction, such as Crimea, Ukraine’s renunciation of nuclear weapons and energy policy. Not being a work of historical research, this book does not offer any new insights as to how the events it describes unfolded, but the history of both the dissolution of the Soviet Union and that of post-Soviet Ukraine are masterfully summarized, demonstrating in-depth knowledge of existing scholarly literature. In presenting the history of the ‘divorce’ between Russia and Ukraine, D’Anieri rightly emphasizes the importance of Viktor Yushchenko’s [End Page 588] Orange Revolution, even going so far as to declare that ‘in some respects, the rest of this book is about the consequences of the Orange Revolution’ (p. 133). Equally acute attention is paid to the actions of Poland, which played a central role in favouring Ukraine’s rapprochement with the European Union, and to the analysis of Ukraine’s inclination to evolve towards a democratic regime. Although this topic is not completely ignored, a few more paragraphs on the evolution of Russia’s political and identity would have benefited an understanding of the conflict’s emergence, although admittedly, doing so in depth would have meant writing another book. Lastly, D’Anieri’s exercise in counterfactual history on the issue of whether war could have been avoided in 2014 is set out incredibly clearly as he highlights how the behaviours of both Viktor Yanukovych and Russia were decisive in precipitating the crisis toward armed conflict in the Ukrainian Donbas. It is, therefore, striking that in the final paragraphs, D’Anieri tries to identify possible solutions to the conflict, while admitting that Ukraine had found itself in a dead end. However, there is no suggestion that the war might escalate, showing how difficult it is, as D’Anieri...