International Relations: Europe's Twin Dangers, Putin's Expansionist Foreign Policy, and the Arab Spring

Running head: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
International Relations
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Müller, Jan-Werner. "Europe’s Twin Dangers. Normative Disintegration, Normative
Disengagement, Eurozine, 14 November 2014, htp."
Müller, talks of the values of democracy and the culture of having respect for the rule of
law being immanent in by and large all throughout Europe. To substantiate the exception from
the general picture that prevails in Europe, he provides the example of two countries from,
Russia under Putin, and Turkey under Erdogan, where authoritarianism is the norm. Both are
transcontinental countries, having a major portion of their territory in Asia, and only a small
portion of land in Europe. The issue herein is that Turkey is not a justified example, as it is not
technically not a European nation by virtue of its capital being situated in the Asian part, at
Ankara. He had also tried to equate the Arab Spring with the Euro Crisis, both of which have
different reasons for its occurrence, the former to usher in democracy, while the latter to
welcome the right wing, which is not justified.
Harding, Luke. "We should beware Russia’s links with Europe’s right." The Guardian 8
(2014).
In Harding’s article, the mention of Putin equating the leaders of Western Europe having
a Pro-Liberal approach to Hitler, whose name is synonymous to dictator is farsical. With regard
to his atrocious treatment of the sexual minorities in Russia, Putin himself is quite similar to
Hitler. Also, that the annexation of Crimea had happened due to Putin stirring up the seperatists
in the autonomous region of Ukraine, thereby sending the entire country into a state of political
turmoil cannot be justified on ethical grounds by Putin at all. Crimea was annexed because it had
ethnic Russians as the majority group living there, and more importantly because of the oil
resources which Putin yearned for to supplement his faltering economy.

2INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Kaplan, Robert D. "Europe’s new medieval map." Wall Street Journal (2016).
Kaplan is quite justified when it mentions of the fragmentation that has set in Europe,
especially the European Union with particular reference to the debt crisis. However, he has
overemphasized on the animosity which the member states of the EU are nurturing against each
other, without giving any importance to the spirit of unity generated by the civil society
movements seeking to welcome the refugees. The tension between Putin’s ambition and the
other European leaders is genuine, but at the same time, the rise of Right Wing leaders like
Marine Le Pen and Silvio Berlusconi, who have expressed desire to align their vision with that of
Putin also cannot be ignored.
Applebaum, Anne. "War in Europe is not a hysterical idea." The Washington Post 29
(2014).
Applebaum talks of the dream of Russia to cause the reformation of Novorossia, which
shall be comprising of all territories which were previously a part of Russia. The soldiers of the
nation are quite proactive and optimistic about the certainty of its materialization. In this regard
two critical comments that can be called as quite apt are related to the disintegration of Russia,
and the predisposition of those territories to be a part of the Russian Federation. One of the
reasons why USSR disintegrated was because the constituent units forming the vast federation
wanted independence and the assertion of self declaration, as opposed to the homogenizing effect
of the Russian identity. Naturally, none of those units shall be eager to be a part of Russia yet
once again, and Russia cherishing the dream of making them its part once again is unjust.
Woods, Ngaire. "The European Disunion: How the Continent Lost Its Way." Foreign Aff.
95 (2016): 160