According to the prevailing wisdom in the West, the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the argument goes, annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire, and he may eventually go after the rest of Ukraine, as well as other countries in eastern Europe. In this view, the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 merely provided a pretext for Putin’s decision to order Russian forces to seize part of Ukraine. John Mearsheimer maintains that the United States and its European allies share most of the blame for the current state of affairs.
If you have an hour-and-a-bit to spare, listening to his lecture at the University of Chicago in 2015 may disabuse you of your prejudices. At the very least, it may help you to look past the current headlines.
Bear in mind that this speech was given almost seven years ago. I wonder if John J. Mearsheimer would give the same speech in light of what is happening in Ukraine right now.
