The ongoing crisis in Eastern Europe over Ukraine and Russia has generated considerable controversy in the world of International Relations.

The ongoing crisis in Eastern Europe over Ukraine and Russia has generated considerable controversy in the world of International Relations. Some see the conflict as resulting from authoritarian Russia aggressively annexing parts of sovereign, democratic Ukraine in an attempt to re-establish itself as a global superpower. Others see it as an understandable reaction by Russia, to the aggressive expansion of a hostile military alliance (NATO) to its very borders. Your assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of the two main perspectives on global politics (realism &liberalism) by analyzing the conflict through the eyes of a realist and, in a separate section to do so from the perspective of liberalism. In a conclusion you should explain which interpretation (if any) you find more convincing and why. In the conclusions you can also suggest alternative points of view (Marxism, constructivism…) if you feel they can contribute to our understanding of the situation. The point of this exercise is not to demonstrate your knowledge of the situation in Ukraine. As students interested in Global Politics I assume you have been following the developments there but if you have not you may want to review recent developments. The point is to demonstrate your understanding of the paradigms we explored in the first weeks of this course. To help getting you going there are links to articles on the crisis Ukraine below. Keep in mind that there are no wrong or right answers in this assignment, but rather answers that demonstrate a critical understanding of course concepts and answers that to some extent fall short of doing so.The ongoing crisis in Eastern Europe over Ukraine and Russia has generated considerable controversy in the world of International Relations. Some see the conflict as resulting from authoritarian Russia aggressively annexing parts of sovereign, democratic Ukraine in an attempt to re-establish itself as a global superpower. Others see it as an understandable reaction by Russia, to the aggressive expansion of a hostile military alliance (NATO) to its very borders. Your assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of the two main perspectives on global politics (realism &liberalism) by analyzing the conflict through the eyes of a realist and, in a separate section to do so from the perspective of liberalism. In a conclusion you should explain which interpretation (if any) you find more convincing and why. In the conclusions you can also suggest alternative points of view (Marxism, constructivism…) if you feel they can contribute to our understanding of the situation. The point of this exercise is not to demonstrate your knowledge of the situation in Ukraine. As students interested in Global Politics I assume you have been following the developments there but if you have not you may want to review recent developments. The point is to demonstrate your understanding of the paradigms we explored in the first weeks of this course. To help getting you going there are links to articles on the crisis Ukraine below. Keep in mind that there are no wrong or right answers in this assignment, but rather answers that demonstrate a critical understanding of course concepts and answers that to some extent fall short of doing so.