Russian policy toward Georgia and Ukraine after the color revolutions presents an example of a realpolitik answer to a normative policy challenge. Here we see one of the widest discursive gaps between Russia and the West: the former is convinced that the reason for the latter’s external interference, regardless of its normative rhetoric, always boils down to realpolitik, while the West prefers to frame its policy toward the color revolutions within the normative terms of promoting democracy and civil liberties. Russia entirely denies the normative appeal of the “color revolution” phenomenon, reducing it to a set of pragmatic and power-related issues. […]
Memo #:
4
Series:
2
PDF:
PDF URL:
http://www.gwu.edu/~ieresgwu/assets/docs/pepm_004.pdf
