Averting Crisis in Ukraine
By Steven Pifer
- Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations
- Number Of Pages: 80
- Publication Date: January 2009
- ISBN : ...
- Binding: Paperback
Many of the principal foreign policy challenges facing the new administration deal with the greater Middle East and Asia. Europe, by contrast, appears relatively stable. One potential exception, however, involves Ukraine. The largest country entirely within Europe, Ukraine has tremendous economic potential. It occupies a strategically vital position as the transit point for large amounts of Russian energy going to Europe. At the same time, its links to Russia, ranging from the ethnic and linguistic ties of much of its population to the continuing presence of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, complicate efforts to consolidate stable democratic practices and chart Ukraine’s course. Indeed, the prospect of Ukraine’s eventual membership in NATO is a source of friction in U.S.-Russia relations as well as the subject of disagreement within NATO itself.
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