Literature Review paper

How Vladimir Putin Has Influenced Middle East in Shaping Foreign Policy

Timothy Rowell

AMU

October 17, 2020

How Vladimir Putin Has Influenced Middle East in Shaping Foreign Policy

Basically, foreign policy refers to the strategy of the government as far as dealing with other nations are concerned. According to Kissinger (2019), the Foreign exchange can be used to state the objectives that function as the guidance to the activities as well as relationships concerning on how a state relates with other states. Foreign policy development, many are the times when it is affected by either domestic considerations, the behaviors and policies of other countries or by the set strategies aimed at advancing particular geopolitical designs. Leopold Von Ranke had put more emphasis on the primacy of geography and threats from externalities as factors shaping foreign policy, however afterwards writers have emphasized more particularly in domestic factors. Notably, diplomacy happens to be the key tool of foreign policy, whereas alliances, war as well as international trade may all together be manifestations of it. This paper aim is to research and discuss how Vladimir Putin influence in the Middle East has shaped the foreign policy.

In this paper we will use the key theories and ideas which was proposed by Charles F. Herman which h shall enable us to know the foreign policy of Russia as well as the changes which has been implemented by the administration of President Putin. This theoretical model is a tool which functions to help people properly understand the causes of a government to change their foreign policies. Some of this changes happened to coincide with the fundamental modification of the political system relating to this country, a few matched with administration changes while others in this case we are interested in happened to take place under the current administration of Vladimir Putin.

Firstly, among the most consistent themes and which has shaped the foreign policy in Middle East is Russia prioritizing its relationship with the commonwealth of independent states (CIS). Notably, for a long period of time Russia has been considering Central Asia as its region of influence. As a result, the country has become much more susceptible to invasions from external enemies who has an aim of conquering it. For this reason, Russia came up with a solution of building a buffer zone all around its core with the intent of widening the free space around it (Kissinger 2019). According to Russia this would act as a barrier while making it difficult for any possible invasion from an enemy.

Even though the strategy feels and sounds outdated, it has significantly affected the policymakers of Russia for the whole of 20th century and still into the 21st century, even though there are minimal chances of Russia experiencing an underground invasion. However, they are still concerned that in case it happens it might heavily influence the population of Russia and introduce a Regime change in Russia. This is the Reason why the previous Soviet possessions are of great importance to the administration of Russia. Russia wants all of them under its influence since they provide a buffer to ensure protection of its own core. Russian Leaders lead by President Putin has treated the space of post-Soviet as their key foreign Policy priority and as a region of privileged interests.

Secondly the opposition of Russia to NATO’s aim to expand eastwards has also significantly affected the foreign policy of which it has happened under President Putin. Initially, Russia has been into close proximity to the West and NATO than it currently has in the past (Tatar 107-113). Notably, many times Russia has been mentioned in documents that are official on that It’s security has been subjected to much threat by NATO’s eastward expansion ‘the immediate proximity to Russian borders’ (National Security Concept 2000). Owing to the fact that the Soviet Union ended up collapsing the West initiated the moves aimed at spreading democracy to the whole world. However, to some parts of the world, the West decided to use military force to fix rebellious countries into accepting and abiding by the set rules by the Western established international order. According to (Wasser & Becca, 2019), Since the Gulf War, the West has taken force as an option implementing it either through NATO or individual actions by the states.

As a result of this, from the perspective of Russia lead by President Putin, NATO has notably changed from the then organization of defense it was in the times of cold war into an organization which is very offensive. NATO has progressively continued into recruiting countries that initially were Soviet members resulting to them becoming anti-Russian and that most significantly initially created a buffer zone between Russia and NATO. Consequently, from the perspective of Russia, the eastward expansion by NATO into the region of influence as well as buffer zones signifies a doubtable threat. More precisely, if Ukraine happens to Join NATO, Russia would end up sharing over 2000 kilometers border with NATO, a thing it practically considers to be very much unacceptable.

In conclusion, together with other factors, the fact that the personal views of the President on matters relating to foreign affairs, guided by his life experiences, functions as the primary pillars of the Russian Foreign policy, is a sign that in Politics of Russia, the predominant leader is automatically the determinant factor of changes in foreign policy.

Bibliography

Kissinger, Henry A. Nuclear weapons and foreign policy. Routledge, 2019.

Tatar, Volkan. "Russia’s Middle East Policy in the context of Post-Cold War." The Journal of International Scientific Researches 3, no. 2: 107-113.

Wasser, Becca. The Limits of Russian Strategy in the Middle East. RAND, 2019.