NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE UKRAINIAN CRISIS

NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE UKRAINIAN CRISIS

ABSTRACT

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed due to the rising Soviet power in the aftermath of World War II. Many expected that NATO would be disbanded, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but this did not happen.  NATO believed that she was indispensable for security in Europe, even after the end of the USSR. After the Cold War, NATO’s raison d’être was expressed in the three core tasks of collective defence, crisis management, and cooperative security. The enlargement of NATO in the former Soviet Union brought about a hegemonic power-struggle between the U.S.-led NATO and Russia over the post-Soviet states.  The study, therefore, investigated the link between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and management of the Ukrainian crisis. It adopted the realist paradigm as its analytical framework, while time-series design and the qualitative method of data collection, defined the methodological approach used in the study. A thematic approach was adopted in the review of literature. The study contended that Russia’s regional interests in post-Soviet states account for her opposition to Western hegemony in the area; and that Russia’s invasion in Ukraine territory endangered the foundations of a post-Cold War order in Europe. It also established the link between the application of non-coercive method by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the Ukrainian crisis and the preservation of the United States government vital national interest. Among other things, the study recommended that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should discontinue its provocative enlargements in post-Soviet states.

Key concepts: North Atlantic Treaty Organization, crisis management, annexation, Western hegemony, post-cold war European order, energy politics, national interest, geopolitics.