서강대학교

초록/요약

Due to Russia’s recent annexation of Ukrainian Crimea and its military actions in Ukraine, many scholars and analysts have speculated that Russia is a revisionist country and was waiting a long time to exercise its power and revive its former strength. Especially given the geopolitical importance of Crimea in the region, there have been calls for depriving Russia’s power by collective military actions of the NATO alliance. This thesis is an assessment of the effect of NATO Eastward expansion on Russian foreign policy and its recent aggression. An examination of the NATO Eastward expansion and reaction of Russian policy makers on such developments attempts to show the causal relations between those variables. This study intends to verify the hypothesis of previous scholars who state that NATO’s Eastward expansion led to Russia’s aggressive foreign policy, namely the annexation of Crimea and military intervention of Eastern Ukraine. While Russia may have its geopolitical interest in the Ukrainian region itself, the analysis demonstrated that NATO’s Eastward expansion had a great effect on Russia’s sense of urgency in protecting and maintaining its position along the eastern border.