Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
I think one of great tragedies of history is the way the West reacted to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Way too much gloating, cashing in and grabbing power, way too little co-operation, respectful diplomacy and support of a struggling nation.
History could have been very different, and much better, if we'd had better leaders at that point.
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I just recently read a book or essay that describes just that, but am having a terrible time racking my brain trying to remember the title or the author.
Son of a...
Edit: it was an old article in the nation:
Quote:
NATO expansion does little or nothing to insure the cooperation or constraint from Russia that will be necessary to solve these conflicts. Indeed, it provides the opposite incentive: for Russia to compete in those areas not formally part of NATO and to exclude NATO from any involvement in areas of vital Russian interest. Russian nationalists could reasonably ask: Since the NATO-Russia agreement gives Moscow little or no say in its own area of interest, why should Moscow allow the United States to have a say in areas bordering Russia and in its sphere of influence?…
What is worse, NATO expansion threatens to create tensions and conflicts in the heart of Central and Eastern Europe that would otherwise not exist. For example, expansion puts back into geopolitical play most of the nations that are to be excluded from the first round of enlargement, making them again potential objects of renewed East-West rivalry. The Clinton Administration justifies NATO enlargement in part as an effort to avoid a new security vacuum in Central Europe, but even as it removes some countries from East-West competition it only increases the potential intensity of the rivalry over others, like the Baltic states and Ukraine. As NATO expands to include Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, the exclusion of the Baltic states from NATO membership and Ukraine from a NATO sphere of influence will become even more important goals of Russian foreign policy.
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http://thenation.s3.amazonaws.com/pd...gement1997.pdf