"Russia, Ukraine, and the West"

Speaker: Philip G. Roeder, Ph. D.
Date of Event: April 27, 2005
By Daniela Keller and Emily Powell

Professor Roeder began his presentation by demonstrating a trend of political gatherings between key US leaders and leaders of the Soviet Union in early April. For example, on April 4th -6th, 2005 Victor Yushchenko visited Congress and the President in Washington DC, on April 14th, 2005 Donald Rumsfeld visited Bishkek, and on April 20th Condoleezza Rice went to Moscow.  After explaining this, he posed the question of why does America have so much interest in Russia and the former USSR states at the present time? In order to answer this question, Professor Roeder proposed some significant reasons.  First of all, he discussed the geo-political importance of the former soviet states because they offer strategic position for leverage and power in China and South Asia in wars with the Middle East.  Also it is important for the United States to contain the military development in Russia and if another conflict were to arise, the US will be positioned closer to the target than for example in the time of the Cold War.  A second reason he mentioned was for purpose of balancing terrorism.  For example, Russia still has a huge capacity for destruction with its current weapons and since 1991 the United States has focused on trying to destroy the nuclear weapons that reside there.  This concern of nuclear weapons also applies to the smaller states such as Ukraine, a place if left alone would be the third most powerful nuclear threat in the world.  The United States has also been working hard to improve security at facilities, develop tracking systems for weapon inventories, employ scientists for civilian sector jobs, dispose of materials and create stronger system of enforcing border control. Russia never developed an effective system to track weapons.

 Another strong fear that pushed forward the implementation of these programs is that undocumented and untracked nuclear materials in the Soviet Successor Stats are prime targets for terrorist groups.  For example, Chi Chen, a National Resistance Movement group, has used bombs to threaten and kill for their own aims.  In October 2002, this group held hostage a everyone inside a Russian Theatre and ultimately killing 119 of them.  Also, in August 2004, suicide bombers from the group brought down Russian passenger planes killing 89 people.  More recently, the Al-Queda terrorist group has used Georgia as a training camp for its followers.  Another significant reason for the strong involvement of the United States in Russia and the Soviet Successor States is that they have vast oil reserves in the region.  Currently, Russia is the major source of gas for all of Europe.  The final reason suggested by Professor Roeder, and perhaps the most ideological, is the West wants to promote the spread of democracy within the region because democratic nations are the key to stable security relations with other parts of the world.  The process of democratization in the area will also result in the ability to combat terrorism on a long-term basis, check proliferation, stable economic relations with the West, and ideally a more peaceful world. 

We want to thank Professor Roeder for a very informative, clear and well- structured speech on this very important subject on contemporary World Affairs.