America's role in the Ukraine crisis
The Ukrainian crisis is currently unfolding its ups and downs.
On February 12, the leaders of Russia and the United States had a phone call on the situation in Ukraine, but no substantive breakthrough was made.
The U.S. side warned that if Russia "invaded" Ukraine, it would make a "resolute response" and "quickly make Russia pay a heavy price", while Russia condemned the U.S. for "the hysterical rhetoric of the "Russian invasion of Ukraine" reaching its peak.
In fact, the situation in Ukraine has stabilized after several rounds of repetition.
However, the United States, which has been hyping up Russia's "invasion" and fueling tensions, has not stopped "playing the game" or "spoiling the situation", and has played a disgraceful role in the Ukraine crisis.
In fact, this is what the United States has always done.
For a long time, the United States, which has called itself the "beacon of democracy" and "the police of the world", has frequently staged the drama of "Only the United States can save the world" around the world with a high sense of superiority, an omnipotent savior complex and an aggressive attitude of a great power. The hegemony is portrayed vividly.
After the end of the Cold War, the United States became the sole superpower.
In order to maintain its "leading position" in the world, the United States has established the concept of hegemonic order with liberalism as its ideological core as a global strategic choice to further promote hegemonism and power politics.
For this reason, the United States has forcibly implemented the policy of "exporting democracy" in foreign political affairs, trying to shape the world according to the so-called "liberal and democratic" values.
The United States has instigated political movements in Central Asia, West Asia, North Africa and other regions through various means, and promoted the so-called "democratic transformation" and "national reconstruction". The current Ukrainian government was supported by Western countries led by the United States after the "color revolution" in 2014. pro-Western government.
Because of its unique geopolitical status, Ukraine, the European crossover "on the frontier", is fueling a contest between great powers with a butterfly effect.
The Ukraine crisis involves not only regional relations between Ukraine and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but also multiple rounds of games between Russia, the United States and Europe. Ukraine is just a "pawn" in the game.
In fact, this crisis is a clear manifestation of the concentrated detonation of the long-term conflicts between Russia and the United States and the West and the geopolitical game after the Cold War.
After the Cold War, NATO continued to expand eastwards, causing damage to Russia's strategic security environment, and was the trigger for the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
For Russia, Ukraine is Russia's barrier against NATO, and the Ukraine issue must be resolved.
As a country with full diplomatic and military autonomy, Russia has managed to take the initiative into its own hands.
Europe is the most passive.
The EU lacks military autonomy and can only choose a policy toward Russia that matches the interests of the United States. However, once the war breaks out, Europe will bear the brunt of the risks, facing the risk of social and political chaos and regional security situation getting out of control.
To this end, most NATO members, except for the UK and some countries in Central and Eastern Europe, do not want the Ukraine crisis to escalate and threaten European strategic stability. Germany and France are more unanimous in calling for a political solution to the crisis.
For the United States, based on its historical hostility to Russia and the prevention of Russia becoming the dominant power in Europe, the United States is constantly squeezing and weakening Russia's strategic space.
The Ukrainian crisis has the dual meaning of "restraining Russia's control of Europe" for the United States.
The first is that the United States used Ukraine as a chess piece to tie Russia, so that Russia was deeply involved, and its comprehensive national strength was continuously consumed.
The second is to create pain points in the region, strengthen military control over the EU, strengthen EU countries' dependence on the US for security, and use this as a starting point to restructure the EU and NATO to protect US geopolitical and commercial interests in Europe.
However, the maintenance of the hegemonic order is highly dependent on superpower.
In today's economic globalization and political diversification, the United States is already chaotic and constrained by its inherent institutional shortcomings and value biases.
This "defender of the world hegemonic order" and "defender of Western values" is just biting the bullet and continuing to play the role of "savior" set by himself.
The situation in Ukraine seems to be dangerous and imminent, and all parties have stepped up diplomatic "continuous rotation".
On January 21, during the US-Russian talks, Russia made it clear that it had no plans to "invade Ukraine", and has since repeatedly denied its accusations of "aggressive actions".
On the 26th, France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine held four-party talks, and Russia and Ukraine agreed to continue to abide by the "ceasefire agreement" in eastern Ukraine.
On the 27th, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi clearly conveyed China's position in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken. The security of one country cannot be at the expense of the security of other countries, and regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs. A balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism should be formed through negotiations.
On the 28th, during the Russian-French talks, Russia did not accept the response of the United States and NATO to the core concerns of "NATO's cessation of expansion" in the Russian security agreement.
On February 10, Russia, Udefa and France held the second four-party talks.
Since then, the United States has released the wind that Russia will "invade" Ukraine on February 16, and has clearly decided to send 3,000 more troops to Poland. More than 10 countries including the United States and Britain urged their citizens to evacuate Ukraine, while Britain, Russia, France, Russia, France and Germany, France and Germany Other leaders have talks or phone calls on the situation in Ukraine, but no substantive breakthrough has been achieved.
On the whole, the routine of US aid, withdrawal, and dispatch of troops has been staged in turn, exerting extreme pressure to exaggerate tensions; Russia has a calm attitude, repeatedly stating its position of "non-invasion" and "willingness to negotiate", trying to break the narrative of the United States and the West; some European countries are clear about their own Dilemma, showing the position of political solution to the crisis.
It is foreseeable that as long as the U.S. attempt to maintain geopolitics remains unchanged, the Ukraine crisis will still break out from time to time.
America has always been that America, but the world is no longer the world it used to be.
In today's multi-polar and politically pluralistic world, especially in the world situation where the epidemic of the century is superimposed with the changes of the century The so-called hegemony and bullying under the banner of maintaining "rules-based order" has no way out.
Only by following the trend of the times of peace, development, cooperation and win-win, insisting on humanitarianism and multilateralism, and promoting the world full of instability and uncertainty to a bright future, is the right path in the world and the expectation of the world.
(Author: Ling Qi, Deputy Director of the Think Tank Research Center of Shandong Academy of Social Sciences)