Copyright 2000 www.cosmopolis.ch Louis Gerber All rights
reserved.
Between Russia and the West: Foreign and Security
Policy of Independent Ukraine
Studien zu Zeitgeschichte und
Sicherheitspolitik,
V. 2. by Kurt R. Spillmann, Derek Muller and Andreas Wenger (editors)
Between Russia and the West: Foreign and Security Policy of Independent
Ukraine (by Kurt R. Spillmann et al., editors) tries like Ukraine
in the World to work out the past, present and future foreign and
security policies of the Ukraine. In the book edited by Lubomyr A. Hajda
you
may find a sharper analysis of the international relations of the newly
independent state south of Russia and of its possible strategies, but Spillmann's
studies are complementary in the sense that it contains articles on the
different Ukrainian political forces and their concepts of foreign and
security policy.
The Ukraine's foreign relations are based on the principle of non-alignment
or neutrality. The different studies in Spillmann's book examine the legislative
and institutional foundations of the Ukraine's foreign and security policy,
its underlying national interests and the development of the Ukraine's
defense sector (750,000 former Soviet troops have been peacefully transformed
into the armed forces of the independent Ukraine; currently 420,000 military
and civilian personnel). The second part of the book deals with the country's
international relations, its cooperation with NATO, its relationship with
the European Union, its strategic partnership with Poland as well as with
smaller regional powers. Accession to Western structures by Poland, the
Czech Republic and Hungary could "radically change the political priorities"
of these countries and "decrease the Ukraine's importance within their
political goals."
The third part of the book is dedicated to Ukrainian-Russian relations,
on the so called "Big Treaty" and numerous bilateral agreements that mostly
are not implemented yet. Real cooperation is rare (Ivana Klympush) and
Russian capital investment in the Ukraine is low (Hermann Clement). Russia
and the Ukraine are not equal neighbours. 51% of the population of the
former Soviet Union settled on the territory of Russia, only 18% on the
soil of Ukraine. Russia's contribution to Soviet GDP exceeded its proportion
of the population and production per capita, while the Ukraine's share
was lower (Hermann Clement). Today, the Ukraine depends on Russia's energy
supplies and its debts and delayed payments to Russia rose dramatically
(especially because of Gazprom). Different Russian and Ukrainian
perspectives are visible in the articles by authors from Moscow and Kyiv
(Kiev).
"[...] while [the] Ukraine's main strategic goal - the integration with
the European Union - is shared by the overwhelming majority of the national
political elite, many officials and analysts doubt the adequacy of an unreserved
orientation towards American regional interests", according to Aleksandr
Levchenko, vice-president of the Ukrainian Center for International Security
Studies in Kiev. Iris Kempe, senior researcher at the Center for Applied
Policy Research at the Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich, comes to the
conclusion that "Ukrainian leadership concentrates on an objective [integration
with the EU], which is unrealistic at least in the mid-term." These two
statements outline the dilemma of the Ukraine: willing but not able to
join the EU.
The most interesting part - in addition to Hajda's book - is chapter
one with its analysis of the political forces and their positions on foreign
and security policy issues. Taras Kuzio, honorary visiting research fellow
at the Ukraine Center at the University of North London, divides the political
forces not only with Slawophiles versus Westernizers, but subdivides them
into romantic and pragmatic Westernizers, romantic and pragmatic Slavophiles.
He attributes the great number of political parties to the according categories.
Aleksander Parfionov, executive director of the Ukrainian Center for
International Security Studies in Kiev, examines the foreign and security
policy views of the relevant Ukrainian political forces: On the political
right are Rukh, the Democratic Party of the Ukraine, the
Ukrainian
Peasants' Democratic Party, the Ukrainian Republican Party,
the Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party, Republican Christian
Party, the Ukrainian Christian-Democratic Party and the Union
of Christians. On the left we find the Socialist Party of the Ukraine,
the Communist Party of the Ukraine, the Progressive Socialist
Party of the Ukraine, the Labor Party of the Ukraine, the Party
of Ukrainian Pensioners, the Communist Labor Party, the Labor
Agrarian Party, the Bolshevik Communist Party, the Union
of Ukrainian Workers, the Party of Ukrainian Communists, the
Union
of Ukrainian Communists and the Party of Communists (Bolsheviks)
of the Ukraine. Among the centrist parties Parfionov counts the United
Social-Democratic Party of the Ukraine, the Social-Democratic Party
of the Ukraine, the People's Democratic Party of the Ukraine,
the Labor Congress of the Ukraine, the Party of Democratic Revival
of the Ukraine, the Liberal-Democratic Party of the Ukraine,
the Liberal Party of the Ukraine, the Constitutional-Democratic
Party, New Ukraine, the Universal Ukrainian Union (Hromada)
and the Agrarian Party of the Ukraine. Parfianov analysis the different
ideas of all these parties, some of them merged, others disappeared. Although
the president and his staff take a lot of important decisions, the parties
represented in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, have
"the constitutional competence to outline the main strategic directions
of the Ukraine's foreign relations."
The authors in Spillmann's book agree on the fact that the key to the
future of the Ukraine lies in its economic system and its future reforms,
but like in Hajda's Ukraine in the World, there is no analysis of
the economic reforms undertaken in the Ukraine since its independence.
What measures should be taken in the future? What are the different economic
policies proposed by the various political forces? How can the legal system
be reformed in order to fight corruption and to enforce the law, thereby
making foreign investment possible? Foreign and security policy are not
only closely tied to the Ukraine's domestic policies, they depend
on domestic, legal and economic choices. Therefore, their systematic analysis
is essential to the understanding of the Ukraine's international relations.
_________________
Kurt R. Spillmann, Derek Muller, Andreas Wenger (Editors): Between Russia
and the West : Foreign and Security Policy of Independent Ukraine (Studien
zu Zeitgeschichte und Sicherheitspolitik, V. 2.). Hardcover, Bern/New York,
Peter Lang, November 1999, 357 p. Get the book from Amazon.com.
