Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Alireza Momeni, Master's student in Political Science, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Mazandaran University, Babolsar, Iran.
2
Postdoctoral researcher, Political Science Department, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
10.22080/jpir.2025.28632.1422
Abstract
Realism is one of the most influential theories in international relations. Each of the realist schools has tried to explain the cause of the Ukrainian crisis. This study attempts to criticize and examine the views of these schools. From the perspective of offensive realists, the expansion of NATO and the movements of the United States and its Western allies caused Russia to attack Ukraine. From the perspective of defensive realists, although we should consider NATO's movements important, Russia justified its intentions to seize Ukraine behind the expansion of NATO and attacked Ukraine. Therefore, the research question is: "In addition to the reasons put forward by theorists of the realist movement (defensive and offensive), what other factors can be stated as the causes of the war between Russia and Ukraine?" The results of the research show that neither the idea of "responsibility transfer" of the aggressive realists, based on the United States assigning responsibility for confronting Russia's rise to power in the Eurasian region to Europe, nor the idea of collective cooperation of Western governments against new security threats in the form of NATO, will encompass the causes of the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the roots of the conflict should be sought in other factors such as: Ukraine's strategic location, the country's pendulum policies due to the change of presidents, and Russia's expansionism. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical, and the library study method was used in data collection.
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