The Pivotal Nature of Geography and Control over the Eastern Gateway to the West: Ukraine as Focus of Conflict

Authors

  • Author

  • Emad Y. Kaddorah

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12816/0007099

Keywords:

Eastern Gateway, European Partnership, Geography

Abstract

Ukraine occupies a highly sensitive position between Russia and the Nato-member states because it is currently the main buffer state between them and also occupies more than half the extent of the eastern gateway to Europe, via which threats to Europe have passed throughout history. The continuation of European and Nato actions to incorporate and form partnerships with other states aims to curtail Russian influence in this region and reinforce control over it. Russia, deeply disturbed at the encroachment of Western influence to its wider immediate neighborhood, cannot abandon Ukraine to become part of the West's security and economic order. For, in addition to Russian nationalist feeling for Ukraine, it is part of its "special interest zone" and the final strategic stronghold buffering it from the West and its allies. The global tensions caused by the Ukraine crisis and the threat it poses to relations between two major global actors call for a discussion over the wider context to Ukraine's place in Western and Russian strategic thinking.

Author Biography

  • Emad Y. Kaddorah
    باحث ومحرر أول في المركز العربي للأبحاث ودراسة السياسات.

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3Total citations
0From ACRPS journals
3External sources

Citing articles from external sources (3)

  1. سرمد عبد الستار أمين, حنين جاسم علي (2024) مأزق روسيا الجيوبوليتيكي والطروحات الفكرية لألكسندر دوغين المعالجة له. مجلة كلية القانون والعلوم السياسية, 275 https://doi.org/10.61279/xdj6d924
  2. Assist. Lecurer. Husam Mohammed Khudhair, Assist. Prof. Dr. Saleem Gata'a Ali (2023) The Russian-Ukrainian Relations after 2014. The International and Political Journal, 277 https://doi.org/10.31272/ipj.i56.254
  3. Jamal Mohammed Ameen Hussein (2020) The Ukrainian crisis and its geopolitical impact on the Russia-Western relations during the period 2013-2018. Halabja University Journal, 5(1), 208 https://doi.org/10.32410/huj-10268

Sources: Crossref Cited-by, and the references (notes and reference lists) of the Center's own articles

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Published

2014-07-01

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Issue

Vol. 2 No. 009 (2014): Issue 009

Section

Studies and Analytical Papers

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Copyright (c) 2014 Emad Y. Kaddorah (Author)

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