Both the West and Russia would have been considerably more secure today if the chance for Russia to join the European Union, and possibly even NATO, had at least been kept open in the 1990s.
Instead, their exclusion has given Russians the sense of being outcasts and victims — which, in turn, has given credence to embittered jingoists like President Vladimir Putin, who see all the disasters that have befallen the country over the past generation as an American plot to reduce and isolate it. Mr. Putin’s authoritarianism and bellicosity have been sustained by genuine popular support.
There is a lot of nonsense in the article (including wrongly calling looting government property "adopting capitalism" in post-Soviet Russia), but that is the most annoying part.
Russians come out of the womb seeing themselves as outcasts and victims, and adjust their paranoia level accordingly. Joining NATO would have just been eventually seen as being conquered. And given the conditions of democracy, rule of law, and aligning militaries with NATO standards, how could Russia have qualified in the first place? So no, Putin is not our fault.
And from the NATO point of view, how in the world could NATO have incorporated Russia? Critics of NATO expansion complain of NATO stretching too far east to defend the Baltic states, as it is.
But NATO was to be extended to the Russo-Chinese border in Asia and commit NATO to defending that conquered land from the Chinese if the Chinese decide they want it back? Really? That's something reasonable that we should have done?
Actually, that is the most ridiculous part. This is the most annoying part:
The ease with which many former Marxists have adapted themselves to post-Cold War market economics raises the question of whether this had been an avoidable conflict in the first place. With hindsight, the outcome was not worth the sacrifice — not in Angola, not in Vietnam, Nicaragua or Russia, for that matter.
Essentially, the good professor is arguing that because we won, the victory itself proved we did not have to struggle to get the win. Somehow victory was inevitable. And yes, I've actually heard someone make this argument.
Echelon above reality is a military term to mock higher level headquarters; but it applies better to academics.
