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- Jul 19, 2010
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When trying to understand world events through this realist lens, the sovereignty of weaker states doesn't matter as much. Obviously it should matter but it doesn't.
And here is the crux of the issue, you think it doesn't matters as much, its pretty clear from the "imagine if China put bases on Canada or Mexico" without even putting into the equation that it takes two to tango.
Mexico or Canada would never just let a foreign nation set up bases on their country because there is no incentive to do so, you are correct nations act according to their interests and the USA has made sure its on the interests of said critical nations to be friendly with the US.
have to realize that we actually live in the "realist" scenario where force, self-interest,
And precisely because of this "realist" scenario and the Zimmerman Telegram is that the US has made sure that no matter how awful Mexican government may be, they will still find ways to keep relationships cordial.
This is what Russia failed to achieve in the post-Soviet collapse, they believed that by murdering unfriendly politicians and supporting satraps they could keep other nations Russian friendly but it blew up in their face.
In a "REALIST" world, Russia is not a rival for the West and as you pointed out "weaker nations interests aren't as important", well yeah, that's why we are here, Russia bited more than they could chew, pissed off most of their neighbors who ran into NATO for protection and instead of rectifying course, the stupidly pushed more and more.
Now Ukraine is on a fight for survival and quoting you
"domination and survival are what shape inter-state behavior."
So yeah, Ukraine is behaving exactly as expected for a nation that was pushed to the brink, which in turn allowed NATO to expand, Russia shouldn't had been so hostile to its neighbors.