A Boldly Proposed Peace and Neutrality Plan and Eventually Treaty To End The War in Ukraine

We remain imprisoned by the past as long as we deny its influence in the present.
-Justice William J. Brennan

It is as if, while listening to the ever more aggressive and unhinged Western news sources, we are now once again reverting back to an increasingly dangerous new Cold War, only this time around, not with the Soviet Union, as was especially the case during Berlin, and, even much more so during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when just through sheer luck more than anything else, a nuclear conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, was avoided, but this time around now with Russia. In essence, Russia under Vladimir Putin now, is viewing Ukraine, as its own version of Cuba, and it has made it very clear time and again and for a long time already that it would not allow Ukraine to ever join the NATO alliance. In various talks, leading up to the now ongoing conflict between the invading Russian armed forces and the fiercely defending Ukrainian army and people, the Russian leaders, continued to point out to the West and to various western leaders as well as to US leaders that they could not and would not allow Ukraine to join NATO, after so many other Eastern European, starting out in 1998 with Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic officially joined NATO on March 12, 1999 (1).

Various Eastern European smaller and larger countries such as Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovenia continued to join NATO after 1999 from the northern to the southern borders of western Russia, with the exception of both Belarus, and also even more importantly with the exception of the much larger and to Russia much more central Ukraine. Ukraine is the largest country in Western and Eastern Europe. Again, this ongoing strong Russian opposition of Ukraine joining NATO, was made very clear to many different Western leaders, who went to see Vladimir Putin and they also had various meeting with his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, both in person and in virtual meetings via the internet, time and again, but, the various Western leaders including US leaders, continued to insist that Ukraine was a free and independent country and therefore that Ukraine also had a right to decide its own future military alliances moving forward. Ukraine, which means “borderland”, has been a country over which many different empires and countries have fought and competed in order for them to dominate it for a very long time now.

I suppose Ukraine, had a fundamental right to independently choose its military allies; at least, especially if they are or choose to be western allies, but you must understand that neither Cuba nor Nicaragua or Venezuela, whatever you may think of their respective governments, these different sovereign and independent countries, did not have any such right to do so whatsoever in the Americas, and this is only to name a very few countries, which the West under the leadership of the United States, has helped to violently overthrow and to try and replace their respective governments with various governments largely of their own choice. A democratic Chile under Salvador Allende anyone, and, in so doing, stopping them from being able to decide not only their own domestic socio-economic and political model, but also their international relations going forward. But, then again, I suppose, this is nothing else but the Melian Dialogue, in which it is stated that “the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept” regularly being imposed on all of these various smaller and larger countries across the world by the arrogant US and by the arrogant West (2). All the while, constantly boldly claiming in the process that they are spreading freedom, democracy and human rights, although those terms, are quite often never being defined in the same process or they are only and unilaterally being defined by the very same invading “superior” and “civilized” West, constantly being led by the United States of America.

I have just seen President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address, claim that the West, which is constantly being led by the United States, was willing to negotiate with Russia in order to find a solution about Ukraine, but that the Russian President Vladimir Putin, was unwilling to do so. I am sorry to say, this is simply a complete lie and not even a half-truth, for Russia, was constantly emphasizing, to the West for quite a long time now that it would never accept Ukraine joining NATO under any condition (s) whatsoever. In effect, what we are seeing now is Russia, on its part, arrogantly imposing the Melian Dialogue on a fiercely resisting Ukraine and Ukrainian population. Especially, what happened on Snake Island in the Black Sea between the Russian warship and the Ukrainian defenders of the small Ukrainian Island, is extremely interesting in terms of the Melian Dialogue. What we seem to be observing here on the part of Russia, is called in realism, “the security dilemma”, and, this happens when a country and its leadership thinks and feels that it is increasingly being threatened by other countries and/or military alliances. All of this is a direct result of the fact that in international politics where there exists no world government, and, therefore where “international anarchy” reigns, and every country has to look out for its very own security (“self-help” system), which often or it can at times lead to growing and dangerous military competition, especially in a world still filled with various kinds of nuclear weapons, if hopefully not ultimately to a catastrophic Armageddon confrontation, between the various competing nuclear states worldwide (3). This Armageddon confrontation, is especially in play when various nuclear armed states (in this particular context, when the US, France and The United Kingdom, on one side of the highly problematic equation, and, Russia, on the other side, do have nuclear weapons) and when they are potentially confronting each other in many different and new ways every day.

At present, we can see this very “self-help” system now, concretely unfolding itself in regards to Ukraine with the Ukrainians having to defend themselves against the aggressively and the criminally invading Russians, and all of this plays out while Ukraine constantly pleads for ever more western help, in one form or the other, but it is only receiving some of this help. This is because Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons, if the West and/or NATO, really becomes involved in the ongoing war in Ukraine. Still, if you consider the fact that I am using the specific term “involved” here, and, the problem with this term is that it is very fluid and flexible and it can ultimately easily lead to increasing problems the longer this war and conflict continues to rage in Ukraine, and, I am afraid we are already more and more starting to see this happening. Again, coming as I do from small and from even smaller Islands, in the Caribbean region, and from where everything in the rest of the Americas, had their original beginnings in many different ways, when you end up studying and reading these international relations theories and history, you can oftentimes not even believe what it is you are reading or studying, but, in the North and West, much of this, passes for rather profound and insightful thinking. You also must understand that this does not pass as only western or US thinking, no, nooo, noooooo, this passes as thinking with eternal universal implications. Obviously, in their ongoing racist and increasingly worldwide genocidal arrogance, “superior” westerners and northerners are always thinking for the “inferior” rest of the diverse brown and black worlds, who obviously from this ongoing deeply racist imperialist context, cannot think for themselves. And, the very dangerous situation, we are all facing in the Ukraine right now, is where all of this, in many different ways junk and highly poisonous and deeply problematic ethnocentric thinking and theorizing, leads us to, but we still have to operate within this field of thought moving forward for some time. This will be and remain the case at least until the West and the US, loses its and their still dominant position in world politics, which is already increasingly starting to happen nowadays, but it is a process that will still take some time to complete.

I suppose the West during its myriad and many different meetings and talks with Russia and just before Russia’s illegal, aggressive and criminal invasion of Ukraine, was still somewhat stuck in the past with the view of a very weak, impoverished and for many years after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, a rather broken new Russia. The radically reforming Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, had in effect been the first leader to be promised that NATO would not expand “one inch” more into Eastern Europe by US leaders, after the Soviet leader had agreed to allow the former East Germany in its reunification with the former West Germany into the Federal Republic of Germany to be included into NATO. I am not going to get into this and into these various promise (s) made, in 1990 and in 1993, any further here because it and they can be found being referred to time and again in many different places. I will also not do so, as a result of the fact that this is ultimately about the bold Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality plan and treaty proposal, being put forward here. Early on, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many US politicians and US military leaders, were very much against the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe. They did not or could see the or any purpose in doing so. Still, NATO, was eventually rather quickly expanded into Eastern Europe, and all of this took place, at least partly under pressure from various Eastern European countries in 1998, and really concretely starting out in March 1999. These various Eastern European countries, had just recently freed themselves from the stifling authoritarian grip of the Soviet Union, and their respective and somewhat different pro-Soviet governments in various ways, and, they were still very worried about the future given their highly negative experiences with the Soviet Union. And, after its initial 1998 move into Eastern Europe, NATO, still continued to expand in Eastern Europe. From very early on, during the beginning of this NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, in the late 1990s, a much weaker and an economically bankrupt Russia and the Russian leaders of those times, were already constantly expressing their serious concerns, their growing doubts as well as their profound dislike of this NATO expansion close and ever more much closer to their western borders, and they did so time and again to the various US and Western European leaders (4).

The Russian Federation, as the main successor state replacing the former Soviet Union, has indeed inherited that increasingly badly broken, but, still for them very important 1990 political and diplomatic promise from the Soviet era, first made to Mikhail Gorbachev by the US, the Soviet leader, who was quite willing to work together with the West, to find solutions beneficial to both parties. In 1993, much the very same diplomatic promise, was made to the leader of Russia in those times, Boris Yeltsin, who was also a favorite of the West. Subsequently, the ever more somewhat stronger Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin, continually pointed out the promises made by the West, to the West and to the United States time and again, in various different meetings, whenever further enlargements of NATO, into Eastern Europe, came up or were being discussed. Even, Gorbachev later on said that the United States and therefore in essence also the entire West, had become ever more “arrogant” after the collapse of the Soviet Union (5).

Before, I lay out my bold Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality plan and eventually Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality Treaty in detail, in the following, I must say that I am boldly doing so, as someone, who was born on the small peaceful southern “Dutch” Caribbean Island of Aruba, and, I grew up on the even smaller peaceful northern “French/Dutch” Caribbean Island of St. Martin/St. Maarten before leaving the small and for quite some time during my early youth and before the tourists came, a rather isolated tropical Island. I left the small tropical Island of St. Martin/St. Maarten or Soualiga, as the Carib natives called it, barely sixteen years old, to go to the Netherlands where I grew up, studied, lived and briefly worked during some heated times of the Cold War before eventually coming to the United States. I am therefore writing and proposing my bold Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality plan and hopefully eventual Ukrainian-Russian Peace and Neutrality Treaty (URPNT), as someone, who comes from a part of the world that does not possess any great armed forces and which also certainly does not have any nuclear weapons, but from a part of the world, including Africa from where many Caribbean people in the past, were violently kidnapped and transported across the Middle Passage where many died, and, for those who survived, to the Caribbean, in order for them to work there as brutally enslaved people for the benefit of the various monstrously and genocidally white European colonizing powers over hundreds of years, and, also, including Central and Latin America, which just like Africa, do not possess any nuclear weapons, as well as for the many different peoples living across the many different larger and smaller Islands, in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and in other Seas and Bays, and all of whom, who certainly also do not possess any nuclear weapons whatsoever and/or large armies, but all of whom ultimately can end up paying the ultimate existential price, if this ongoing conflict concerning Ukraine, continues to spiral out-of-control, as it is seemingly doing at present, and, until who really knows where it can all end, if these various economic, armaments, political and military developments and measures as well as countermeasures, continue to proceed unchecked, as they are doing right now. It also must be pointed out here that all of these various economic, financial, international banking measures as well as anti-oligarch boycotts and measures, regularly being imposed on Russia now, really have very little to do with Russia, but they are clearly early warning signs to China concerning Taiwan.

The only problem with all of this for both the West and the United States, is the fact that China and the Chinese economy, is 7 or 8 times larger than the Russian economy, and, China is also much more important and crucial to the world economy in many different ways than Russia ever was. Therefore, the Taiwan situation, also needs to be solved peacefully in the interests of all of humanity as well. Still, I do not want to pull any kind of punches here in writing this Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality plan and treaty proposal, especially as someone coming from the Caribbean region. This “horrific threat to potentially use nuclear weapons”, is the ultimate global racist genocidal arrogance, on the part of also the still mostly “white West” as well as “white Russia”, and to be doing so once again and cynically playing games with the threat of the use of nuclear weapons, in order for them to fulfill, their respective ongoing monstrously competitive power politics’ international economic, strategic and political goals. And, all of this still continuing northern and western barbarism, ultimately at a huge final and eventually sooner or later terminal existential cost and price, to the overwhelming brown and black majority of humanity, who have nothing whatsoever to do with this increasingly violent and ever more escalating war and conflict between the various historically deeply-militarized Europeans, in Europe and in North America, on the one side of this ongoing highly problematic equation, and in Russia, on the other side of this very same ongoing highly problematical equation, regarding the future of Europe.

If, the white Western and Eastern Europeans, the white Russians, and the still powerful white North Americans, really wanted to destroy one another using their nuclear weapons, and, also if all of this only had terminal and fatal consequences for themselves, then, you know, I would happily invite them, to go right ahead and to destroy themselves, if they were really so incredibly stupid and violently irresponsible, to choose and do so. But, as we all should certainly know by now, I believe, it will take either one hundred or two hundred exploding nuclear weapons, in order to end all life on our planet Earth, either directly and instantaneously or horrifically indirectly over time from the catastrophic consequences of ongoing radiation. And, in this context, it only seemingly takes between ten to a hundred “super-nukes” to bring about an end to humanity here on earth (6). Again, in other words, it does not take the exchange and the detonation of many of the large numbers of the various powerful nuclear weapons, nuclear missiles and nuclear warheads between both sides, of the absolutely irrationally and incredible amounts of nuclear weapons both sides still have now, and, in order for this fundamentally inhumane northern and western nuclear exchange, to lead to the complete end and ending of all human life on our fragile beautiful little planet, Earth. But, then again, I suppose our beautiful little Earth, will nonetheless proceed to continue on its way, and who knows maybe someday, a better and a smarter group of new human beings or human-like beings, may over time evolve to take our place here.

Nevertheless, against this ever more potentially ominous background, we need to once again all of us as citizens of the world, immediately start calling on all of the countries possessing monstrous nuclear weapons (the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea) to start the complex negotiations under the leadership of the United Nations, with especially “black and brown” but also “white countries”, which do not have any nuclear weapons, and, for all of these various non-nuclear countries continually working closely together, to play a leading role, in this very crucial diplomatic and international political process, and for all of these various nuclear-armed larger and smaller countries across the globe, to quickly start ridding themselves of their nuclear weapons. In this context, it must be emphasized that human beings, are simply not intelligent, not responsible, and certainly not moral enough, to continue sitting on as well as to continue playing “God” with weapons that can kill all of us everywhere moving forward. If, we continue to do so, sooner or later, we will all eventually and inevitably run out of luck. Very important international scholars, academics, writers, artists, thinkers and philosophers have can been calling for the world to get rid of nuclear weapons now for a very long time. With the utter destructive array of conventional weapons these countries already possess, nuclear arms are really no longer needed in order to “defend” themselves.

Another issue, I have not seen anyone discussing as yet in regards to the ongoing war and to the deepening international military and political crisis in Ukraine, is the fact that Russia, started out by “threatening” to use nuclear weapons, if anyone would try to stop them from invading Ukraine, but the issue now is also the fact that Russia, has what experts call tactical or nonstrategic nuclear weapons, in essence nuclear weapons smaller than the ones used by the US in Japan. These tactical nuclear weapons can kill tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people within limited localities and/or within specific regions. The United States also has such smaller tactical nuclear weapons in its arsenal as well, which can only make the use of such nuclear weapons, in future conflicts and wars, in all probability much more likely going forward, as a direct result of the greater flexibility these tactical nuclear weapons seemingly afford to the leaders of the countries that possess them. It is truly absolute madness for some of us now, to continue playing cynical “mini-mad games with MAD” (mutual assured destruction) as well as potential “MAD-games with MAD” until we all someday, in one way or the other and either for one reason or the other, end up in the inescapable and in the utterly destructive final presence of MAD.

To give a very cynical example here of a probable use of these tactical nuclear weapons, say for example a western country with their longstanding racist and genocidal colonial histories, were, for whatever reason, to attack a “black and brown country” inflicting horrific damage in the process, and, let us just say that the various peoples of that particular “black or brown country”, were also to just like the people in Ukraine are now doing, intensively and determinedly fight back against and fiercely resist, the illegally, aggressively and criminally invading “white” western country, causing growing numbers of its highly-trained and its well-equipped soldiers, mostly young white western men, to die — you wonder how long it would take such a “white” western country with the capability of using tactical nuclear weapons, to decide to use those weapons of varying levels of destructiveness to, you know, “shock and awe” the resisting restless natives, all the while boldly claiming that they were and are fighting against “fanatics”, “terrorists”, “communists”, “fundamentalists” and/or “anti-western extremists”, and, also while boldly proclaiming in their “free media” that they are doing so, in order to so-call protect the population of the very country they are invading, against those very same fiercely resisting local forces they are confronting?

One more problematical future potential use of these many different and very dangerous tactical and nonstrategic nuclear weapons of varying strength, but they also can be much less than the nuclear weapons used by the United States in Japan in 1945, is what will happen, if one day in the not too distant future, Europe and France or Great Britain and/or the United States, were to be confronted with the fact in the case of Europe, with both France and the United Kingdom having nuclear weapons, that millions and millions of Africans and Middle Easterners and others from other parts of Asia, fleeing from the devastating consequences of ongoing climate change, and, all of this, fundamentally caused by the North and the West, were to show up in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia or in Turkey with the intent of getting into Europe. Would the West, especially France and Great Britain, not be put under great political pressure, to not allow this mass-crossing of the refugees across the Sahara or across other parts of the Middle East let alone the very movement of the desperate climate refugees (Ooh, I forgot, this term does not even exist in the law nowadays, hi, hi, hi!!) towards the Mediterranean to occur, if they are already nowadays seemingly in a complete state of panic about just a few refugees trying to get into Europe from North Africa and from the Middle East and beyond. Would they not be put under great political pressure to maybe use their tactical nuclear weapons in such a situation? Again, and most of these desperate climate refugees will be black and brown people. This is why I also believe that it is incumbent upon countries such as Brazil, South Africa, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nigeria just to name a few, who should all tirelessly demand and determinedly lead the fight, to rid the world of these very dangerous and outrageous tactical nuclear weapons by telling the countries, who possess them, to get rid of them or else they will also go nuclear themselves.

Black and brown countries, all over the world, which do not possess any nuclear weapons, should adamantly demand immediate negotiations under the leadership of the United Nations, and in which they can and must play a leading role, with all of the various countries possessing these various tactical and these different nonstrategic nuclear weapons, and specifically to emphatically do so, in order for all of these various countries, to eventually agree under strict UN oversight, in the form of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) for them to rid themselves once and for all of these extremely dangerous tactical and nonstrategic nuclear weapons by having them sign treaties forever banning those types of weapons. Again, there is some ongoing talk now that things are going so very bad for Russia in Ukraine that Russia might become tempted to use their small and smaller tactical nuclear weapons. I simply do not believe that Russia would choose to do so for if it did, it would destroy whatever remaining standing it has left in the world for a very long time to come. My hope here would be that China, which has only very recently been able to develop itself, and, therefore on some level to begin benefitting from it, and, China, also which is increasingly now becoming a very important international economic and political partner of and for Russia, with the ongoing western boycotts and increasing economic punishments of Russia by the West and the US, my hope is that China, would have already indicated to Russia that it would not and could not accept Russia’s use of either tactical nuclear weapons and/or of biological and chemical weapons in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Still, in the larger international context of the war in Ukraine, I wonder how the United States of America, would react, if say Mexico or Canada, which is now part of NATO (Canada), and, I suppose both of these countries are sovereign nations, who have the right to choose, who they would want to become allies with going forward, if you follow the ongoing disturbing Western and the US argument, in regards to Ukraine during its various talks and meeting with Russia and Russian leaders before the War. I do just indeed wonder, and, you know maybe I shouldn’t, but what the hell, I wonder how the United States, would react if say Mexico, you know it is always Mexico this and Mexico that, if therefore say Mexico tomorrow, would all of a sudden decide, to ally itself with the Chinese and to invite China to immediately start building various military installations all across the independent country and also to station some Chinese troops with their latest armaments in hand. This is because Mexico, in this context, is also constantly suffering from a very serious bout of the “security dilemma”, in regards to the United States, and specifically because of the ever more fraught US-Mexican history. I truly wonder, if the United States, in response would say, well, you know, we very strongly disagree with what Mexico is doing, and which is rather surprising to us, but then again you see, Mexico, is a free and a sovereign country, and the Mexican government, does have the right to make such a national security and foreign policy decision, although, we will have to counter their move by building up our armed forces as well as our air forces all along our southern borders with Mexico. Or, would the United States instead just declare Mexico’s decision to ally itself with China going forward, as simply being a completely unacceptable and as an utterly irresponsible undertaking, and, quickly proceed to invade Mexico, in order to stop the Chinese from setting up their armed forces there and from stationing any troops and any aircraft in the sovereign bordering country whatsoever. Anybody, anywhere seriously believes this and/or seriously doubts how the United States, would really act, in such a geopolitical situation.

Let alone, say if Canada during this very same time, would suddenly choose to leave NATO, as a result of growing economic, political and diplomatic tensions with the US, and then quickly decide (obviously the lovely and the peaceful Canadians are also suffering here from a serious bout of the “security dilemma”) to also invite the Chinese, to station thousands of their best troops all across Canada, as a protection against a potential US illegal and criminal invasion of Canada. Again, anybody seriously has any doubts even for a nanosecond about what the United States of America, (you know, I have never really understood this name for this very large and important country from very small because every time I tend look at it on the map, it seems to me to be the United States of North America (USNA), but enfin..) would do to Canada under those conditions, and to hell with international law and the UN and ultimately even with the Nuremberg Trial. Again, the Russian Federation, has been facing since 1998, on its western borders, a continual and an ongoing surrounding by NATO forces, in essence NATO imperialism, from the north to the south, and for some time now with also more and more western European NATO soldiers and better and better armaments as well as more and more US soldiers, which was not very much the case for many years early on in Eastern Europe. As, many experts have pointed out, it is not very far from Ukraine to Moscow and it is equally not a very difficult military route.

Therefore, this ongoing Russian-Ukrainian military, security, and political crisis, and it will certainly continue even after Russia has taken over “control” of Ukraine or of significant parts of it, as it has already done in 2014 with Crimea, is now no longer a growing and increasingly dangerous conflict and crisis, which only the Western and the Eastern Europeans, the Russians and the US, should be worried about and seriously engaged in, but it is quickly becoming, a major international economic, military and political crisis, which the rest of the world, urgently now, also has to become much more engaged in, not by choosing one side over the other, but by adamantly offering to help find and to come up with an acceptable solution and a workable compromise, to all of the various parties, directly and indirectly involved in the war, and ultimately they must do so for the good of all of the very diverse humanity both locally and worldwide. My bold Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality Treaty (URPNT) should be understood as being part of that worldwide undertaking and therefore equally part of strong global push for peace in Ukraine.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine, became the world’s third largest nuclear state because the Soviet Union had placed many nuclear weapons there under its control, which was especially troubling to the West under leadership of the US that were worried about the potential of “loose nukes” falling in the wrong hands. In order, to deal with this problem and after (in)tense negotiations, in which Ukraine at first demanded “security guarantees” from the West and the US, if threatened or invaded by Russia, which it did not trust, it eventually settled for security assurances after the West and the US refused to give them the “security guarantees” they were seeking. The US and the West refused to do so because they understood that such “security guarantees” could eventually put them in a situation of direct military confrontation with Russia in the future. All of this was part of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, which Russia completely broke with its massive invasion of Ukraine of February 24, 2022, and that both Russia, the United States of America and the United Kingdom had signed in exchange for Ukraine giving up all of its nuclear weapons in return. Still, there are many large nuclear reactors producing energy all over in Ukraine. In 1994, Ukraine, also signed up and it joined the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as a non-nuclear weapon state. In 1996, the last strategic nuclear warheads were sent to Russia from Ukraine. Nevertheless, and given this ongoing war and conflict in Ukraine caused by Russia, and also as a result of some troubling sounds coming from some Ukrainian politicians in this regard, the ongoing non-nuclear position of Ukraine, will again be explicitly spelled out in the URPNT, and all of this under very strict and continuing IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) oversight (7). In the present dangerous context, without any real and meaningful peace in Ukraine there can be no movement whatsoever towards neutrality as a matter of fact. Still, just to give one other example for many here off of the top of my head, in terms of the existing wheat production worldwide, both Russia and Ukraine, do play a significant role, in the agricultural production of wheat, and many people in Africa and in the Middle East, depend on this wheat for their bread supplies, and, in all likelihood, this ongoing war and conflict, will lead to a significant increase in wheat prices on the world market in the coming times. In so doing, this ongoing war in Ukraine, will have in other ways as well a disastrous impact on many poor peoples’ lives across the world, who once again although really have nothing whatsoever to do with this Eastern European war and conflict, in which both the West and the United States, are ever more a part of. Russia is also a huge exporter of very much needed fertilizers for agriculture, and, all of this given the destructive form of industrial agriculture that now rules food production worldwide. Again, all of this once again only serves to urgently underscore, the worldwide socio-economic and also the potentially even significant problematic political and military consequences of this ongoing war in Ukraine. Therefore, I am hereby not only proposing a bold Peace and Neutrality plan and eventual treaty here, in which I will be calling not only on the UN General Assembly as well as obviously also on the UN Security Council, but I am also hereby emphatically calling on China, India, Indonesia, on Nigeria and on Brazil just to name a few, to become much more seriously involved, in helping to negotiate and to eventually bring about a peaceful and a long-term sustainable peaceful solution, firmly based on a solid and on a continually solidifying compromise, to this exploding conflict and deepening international political crisis in Eastern Europe, in the fundamental interest of all of humanity moving forward.

This powerfully diverse collective worldwide peace and diplomatic drive and undertaking, is very much needed as a result of the fact that this is exactly what the growing military and international political mess in Ukraine, is coming down to more and more every second, every minute, every hour, every day, and every week that this Ukrainian conflict and crisis continues exploding onwards. In this troubling context, the Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality Plan, I am proposing hereby is an attempt, to try and lift the ongoing dangerous Ukrainian war and conflict, out of a zero-sum game situation, it is now more and more seemingly trapped into at present, and, in so doing, to try and transform it through this Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality Plan, into a win-win solution for all of the various parties involved moving forward. In this context, it must be emphasized that ultimately bringing about a peace settlement in Ukraine, will become over time ever more difficult to realize given the growing damage, destruction, murder, slaughter, rape and rampage being imposed on the country as a result of the war. Nevertheless, it must equally be emphasized here that there can be no real end to this escalating and also to this deepening military crisis and international political conflict, and ultimately, in all probability “military conquest” of Ukraine or at the least of significant parts of Ukraine by Russia, without first of all seriously taking the Russian national security and geopolitical interests, into ongoing consideration, in regards to neighboring large Ukraine moving forward.

This ongoing encouragement of the Ukrainian resistance against the criminal, aggressive and illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, and which is obviously quite understandable on some level, but nonetheless, which in all likelihood, is only going to result, in the use of ever more deadly and destructive Russian military power and military violence, being imposed on larger and larger sectors of the Ukrainian population by the very same illegally and aggressively invading and frustrated Russian armed forces. They will continue to do so in order to make it very clear to all Ukrainians as well as to their various political leaders what they meant when they said time and again that Ukraine could not and would not be allowed to join NATO. I do not want to get into this future situation right now, but if any one thing should be quite clear to everyone by now, it is the fact that the large majority of Ukrainians, do not want to have Russia, “dominating and/or controlling” their country or significant parts of it moving forward. This is will be a huge and an ongoing multilayered political problem for Russia in regards to Ukraine when they ultimately succeed in “taking control” there. Another huge problem for the rather small Russian economy will be the ongoing significant costs of an extremely difficult occupation of Ukraine or of significant parts of Ukraine by Russian forces in a severely damaged country, which will have at least on some level to be rebuilt and reconstructed going forward. The immense and wide-spread damage can easily end up being in the tens of billions of dollars already or even much more. Again, these are also very socio-economic and political important issues, which will continue to haunt the future of Ukraine for the coming times, but I will not be dealing with most of them here because this is about a Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality plan and treaty proposal for the now ongoing war. At this point, one can only guess that the West and the United States, is continuing to strongly encourage the Ukrainians, to resist as a result of the fact that they do feel they do indeed bear some measure of responsibility for the horrific military situation, in which the Ukrainians find themselves trapped now, but another educated guess here, is that the West and the United States, are also encouraging this ongoing proud and very fierce Ukrainian armed and unarmed resistance and protests, in order to force the Russians, to have to use even much more out-of-control military force and military violence on Ukraine and on the Ukrainians, and, in so doing, only leading to ever more deaths and also to much more utter devastation across the entire Ukrainian country, in the near future, and until Russia, finally “succeeds” in taking over the country or of significant parts of the country, which will also by then be so angry and outraged by the wanton and by the extremely violent Russian military actions and destruction that it will be very difficult for the Russians, to ever be able to gain “any measure of full control and political stability” in Ukraine down the road. Another and an even much more cynical reason why the West and the United States, is continuing to encourage strong Ukrainian resistance against the criminal, aggressive and illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, is, in all probability, that they want Russia, to have to use ever more destructive military force against the Ukrainians, which can subsequently be shown on TV, on endless the iPhones, on Facebook, and on various social media time and time again, as a way to further delegitimize and to continually undermine the position of Russia, in the world for the foreseeable future. Clearly, in their view, all of this can only rebound to the benefit of the US and of the West going forward. Last but not least, in this specific context, the West and the US, may also be strongly encouraging and aiding with a variety of weapons and armaments, especially the ongoing fierce and determined Ukrainian military as well as armed resistance against the aggressive and illegal Russian invasion, as a way to “bleed out” Russia as much as possible and also to weaken Russia. In so doing, the West under the leadership of the US, also want to make it extremely clear both to the Russian political and military leaders that any attack by them against the West and the US, would be suicidal and catastrophic for them to even contemplate.

Obviously, after the horrific and the oftentimes horrific things, the United States and the West, have done both in Iraq and in Afghanistan over a quite long period of time, just to name but two countries in this regard; this ongoing Ukrainian crisis, is simply really too rich of an international military and political pie for the West and the US, to consume it too quickly. Nevertheless, in so doing, the potential worldwide catastrophic dangers of this ongoing war and international political crisis and conflict, can without the fact of a diverse group of important “black and brown countries”, together with other countries such as Finland, Sweden and Austria, seriously stepping in and starting to work together towards a viable solution of this ongoing war, for if this is not urgently done, then this entire festering Ukrainian situation, can eventually continue to spin way out-of-control for anyone or for any group of negotiators or for any diverse group of countries anywhere to be able to ever gain control of anymore. I believe the bold Peace and Neutrality plan, I am proposing right here to the rest of the world, as again someone coming from small and from even smaller Islands in the Caribbean region, and for all of these different important countries worldwide, could be a beginning point to quickly start acting on, and, I have to also say that I certainly have no problem whatsoever, if my Peace and Neutrality plan and treaty proposal, is used as a basis or as a foundation, on which to build even more going forward.

Ido hope that anyone, who has been carefully reading what I am and what I have been saying and proposing here up to this point, is very aware of the fact that by now I have not even addressed the notion that Ukraine, is somehow not a true and/or a real independent state, but really nothing much more than “Little Russia” (“Malorossiya”) or “southwest Russia” (“Novorossiya”). All of this had to do with the Russians connecting their very own identity with their sense of imperial destiny, and, therefore with their right to rule and to dominate in one way or the other, all of those living around them, including Ukrainians, who they arrogantly and paternalistically view as their “little brothers”. Still, I have categorically not done so here because this very same violently hierarchical and viciously contemptuous racist colonizing notion, is exactly what the West and the United States, has also constantly claimed about for example Native Americans and their various territories with whom they had signed over 400 treaties, and, which they subsequently systematically violated or about different African peoples and their respective lands or about the original Carib and Arawak peoples, in the so-called “New World”, in what was eventually to become known as the Caribbean or the Antilles or the West Indies, and also about the many different peoples such as the Aztecs, Incas or Mayas, in what was to become known as Central and Latin America or about the various peoples in the Pacific Ocean or in the Indian Ocean or in different places in Asia, which they had monstrously colonized and they had brutally plundered for a long time.

This deeply racist and this highly ethnocentric notion that all of these highly talented and these various beautiful peoples, are some kinds of or are various kinds of “non-peoples” or “un-people” (homo nullius) living in “empty lands” (terra nullius), on which they, the powerful, could project their various racist colonialist wants and rampant ethnocentric needs, and to hell with them and with all of those that live there and had lived there, and had farmed there, and had fished all around those various areas and regions for thousands and for tens of thousands of years before the various plundering and rampaging Europeans had even showed up (8). All of these notions are obviously long gone and long outdated, although many in the North and West, still seemingly continue to fail and understand this crucial international ideological and political point, in a world, which is continually quickly changing all around them, and, in the process, it is also more and more daily, weekly and monthly catching up with them. In essence, in an arrogantly adopted fashion, all of these abovementioned racist and deeply ethnocentric imperialist notions, are exactly what an aggressively and a criminally invading Russia, is now, in turn, very violently projecting into Ukraine and unto the various Ukrainians as well. They are treating the neighboring Ukraine and the fiercely resisting Ukrainian people, as if they are their own version of Native Americans, I suppose, following in the footpath of what the US had done to Iraq and to the Iraqis as well as to Afghanistan and to the Afghanis. Therefore, another crucial and very important political point, I absolutely want to emphasizes here, is the fact that Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, with the exception of Crimea at this point in time, and this remains the case even after Russia has succeeded in taking over “some sort of control over the Ukrainian country or of important parts of it” for however long that may last. In other words, Ukrainian sovereignty as well as Ukrainian fundamental territorial integrity, must be a central and a very fundamental constitutive part of every Peace and Neutrality plan and treaty proposal going forward. This is fundamentally in keeping the UN Charter. Not to do so, would be to open up whole sections of the world, to once again, be invaded and eventually to be “taken over” by larger and by much more powerful countries going forward. Nonetheless, in my bold Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality plan and treaty proposal, I will still try and come up with a and/or with possible solution (s) to the Crimea situation and also for the Donbas area going forward. No country or only very few countries, will ever recognize Russia’s attempt to “take-over Ukraine and/or to take control of significant parts of Ukraine”, and, this will especially be the case, if it subsequently proceeds to try and wipe away the national identity of the Ukrainian nation, by trying or by pretending to “reintegrate” Ukraine within Russia as such after some type of “referendum”.

Still, it should also be quite apparent by now that the sovereignty of Ukraine, will to a certain and very specific extent, have to become limited by an independent Ukraine’s fundamental and ongoing commitment to Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality, and they will also have to do so by agreeing to a somewhat smaller, but nonetheless a very well-equipped and modern military moving forward. The exact and the right size of the Ukrainian military, is something for military experts and for diplomats from all sides to work out and to specify during the negotiations about the Ukrainian-Russian Peace and Neutrality Treaty (URPNT). Again, I do not believe that this can truly be any kind of a significant problem, in this regard because no country, no matter how big and/or how powerful they may be or they may think that they are, in our present-day increasingly multi-polar world, is ever truly completely sovereign and independent of other countries. If, this was the case, we would be constantly facing ongoing warfare all across this precious world of ours. But, then again, I do not think that both of these crucial requirements for a bold Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality plan and treaty proposal, can, in effect, really pose much of a political problem for Ukraine either. This is because of the fact that Ukraine, is a rather poor Eastern European country, maybe the poorest or at least one of the very poorest countries, in all of Europe, and, therefore it can definitely make much better and much more productive use of its limited funds in its civilian economy than by spending those limited funds on a larger military force, which ultimately still cannot really protect it against a much more powerful neighboring Russia (9). All of this Peace and Neutrality plan and treaty proposal, is ultimately about the eventual building of a completely and a fundamentally different type of diplomatic and international and socio-economic relationships as well as of the building of different types of myriad relationships between Western and Eastern Europe and the US and Ukraine, on one side, and most importantly as well as between Ukraine and Russia, on the other side, going forward, in such different fields as research and development, transportation, communication, military affairs, education and culture just to name a few here. In this context, I would strongly suggest that it would be in Russia’s very best interests in regards to Ukraine moving forward, if after the war and when the conflict is over, if, Russia was for many decades to come, to offer many thousands of full scholarships to not only Russian-speaking Ukrainians and/or to Ukrainian-Russians, but also to all talented and able Ukrainian students, who may be interested, in order for them to be able to go and to study at the various leading Russian Universities all over the vast neighboring country as well as many different full scholarships to its great Russian Art Schools and its magnificent Russian Ballet and Music Schools as well. It is also very important to point out here that both sides namely Western and Eastern Europe of which Ukraine is an inherent part, and also Russia with which it has had very close relations for a very long time, must be able to see and to understand, the new geo-economic and geo-political positioning of Ukraine, in Europe and in the World as such, is equally favorable to the both sides moving forward.

This is why I will be proposing here that Ukraine absolutely does not only not join NATO, but also that it equally absolutely does not join the European Union (EU) as well, based on its ongoing neutrality position between Western and Eastern Europe and the United States, on the one side, and, with Russia, on the other side. For if Ukraine, were eventually to join the EU, in so doing, it will inevitably ever more be pulled into the arms of Western and Eastern Europe down the road, as a direct result of the fact that the Western and the Eastern European economies combined in the EU, are over ten times larger than the Russian economy. I will also argue here that Ukraine should equally not join the EU because the European Union, is in many different ways, the economic, financial and the corporate arm, of NATO, in Europe. In this context, how could and would Ukraine, if it is part of the EU, be able to remain neutral, if say Western and/or Eastern Europe, happen (s) to develop some growing military, economic and/or diplomatic problems with Russia, and, as a result, the European Union (EU), would subsequently decide to economically and to financially boycott Russia or to declare a boycott on some of Russia’s exports. Ukraine, as part of the European Union, would have to participate in and/or abide by all of those various measures, which, in all likelihood, would only serve to greatly increase international economic and political tensions and eventually even military tensions with Russia. And, all of this is even much more so economically, socially and politically the case for the Donbas region, compromising the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, and, which is closely intertwined with Russia in many different ways (10). This is not to say that Ukraine, cannot and should not sign a whole array of carefully crafted economic agreements, in order for it to be able to work quite closely with the EU, but it will, in turn, also have to sign, much the very same kinds of economic cooperation agreements with Russia as well, in order to create a continuing balance in regards to Ukraine, between the both sides going forward. All of these various Ukrainian economic agreements should be constantly worked out in careful and in ongoing consultation with both Russia and the West under US leadership going forward. If, the various parties, cannot come to good compromise for all of the parties involved, then, again the UN “diverse group of independent experts”, will carefully listen to the concerns of all of the parties involved, and, it will then be the one to make a final decision in this matter. At the end of the day, we should all remember that a much more developed and a much wealthier and a more stable and peaceful neutral non-nuclear Ukraine, would not only benefit the West, but that it would also be of great benefit to Russia, as well. So, in this context, my fervent hope would be that eventually both the United States, Western and Eastern Europe and Russia, can work much closer together, in helping Ukraine, to much more quickly start developing its economy, in the largest country in Eastern and Western Europe, in order for Ukraine over time to become a much better-off society for the good of all and together with all of its diverse population including the Roma.

As a result, I am convinced that Ukraine, can eventually graduate, towards becoming a crucial place for ongoing important meetings between Western and Eastern Europe and Russia, on a whole range of issues, and, I also believe much the very same thing concerning Ukraine, can be said, as it being an important meeting place for future significant talks and treaty negotiations, and, in which Ukraine, may also be able to play given its specific international neutral political position, a very strong and an intensely creative mediating role between Western and Eastern Europe and Russia and also between the United States and Russia, also in regards to wide-array of international political matters and challenges going forward. All of us, all over the world nowadays, increasingly have to start pulling ourselves out of a past, which every day more and more is being put out to pasture with the ongoing and with the significant socio-economic, military and political changes, taking place on many different levels worldwide, and, we urgently need now to start imagining, a completely new world politics, in which all countries everywhere, no matter how large or small they are, will all be fundamentally treated equally and where the use of military force, in order to settle tensions and conflicts, finally becomes a thing of the past. In the future, these various problems and many different conflicts, will have to be settled through negotiation, mediation or through the use of arbiters, who will come up with a solution, in which all parties, can find themselves and also their interests reflected into. We need to do so in order to keep up with these ongoing and very important multilayered changes unfolding nearly everywhere across the world to varying degrees. Again, we also fundamentally need to do this because if we continue to play these very, very dangerous games with nuclear weapons, it is only a matter of time before in one upcoming context or the other, we will all finally catastrophically surely run out of luck doing so. We, therefore, urgently need to start the process of ridding the world of all nuclear weapons everywhere, and, especially we, who do not have any of these hellish and monstrous weapons, also need to start playing, the leading international political and diplomatic role, in constantly demanding everywhere, we may find ourselves, in the world that the various nuclear powers, begin the complex process of doing so, as soon as possible.

As a result, in this case, we urgently need to start thinking outside the box we are increasingly caught in at present, in order to commence the very complex negotiating process of putting an end to this constantly deepening conflict and crisis as soon as possible. It is now much better to do so yesterday instead of today or much better today instead of tomorrow or much better this week instead of next week. Again, and I know, if you have been following what I have been arguing here closely, it will come as no surprise to you when I say that to Russia and to the present-day Russian leaders, Ukraine is now to Russia what Canada and Mexico or in the past Cuba was to the United States (11). The horrifically dangerous October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, was solved through intense direct and indirect negotiations and talks coupled together with sheer luck, and after the Soviet Union decided to pull back its missiles from Cuba, with the firm US understanding that it would not invade neighboring Cuba, in the Caribbean, and, also that it would later on, in turn, pull its old Jupiter nuclear missiles out of Turkey, although this last part was kept secret for some time. During the Cuban missile crisis, you also had two leaders, Kennedy and Khrushchev, who certainly did not want to launch any nuclear weapons at one another because they both understood how catastrophic such a scenario would be for both of their countries and their respective peoples, and they also both therefore wanted to try and find a way to do so that would not end up humiliating the other side. Much of all of this political understanding, seems to be dearly missing now in the ongoing Ukraine crisis, as more and more extreme measures are constantly being taken by both sides against one another. In my opinion, all of this might only lead Russia, to impose an even greater level of destruction on Ukraine and on the resisting Ukrainian people, and this is even more the case especially given the very poor performance of their military in Ukraine, in order to make it very clear to them about how very much they are absolutely opposed to Ukraine ever joining NATO. At the very same time, the poor performance of the Russian military in Ukraine, will only make Russia ever more dependent on nuclear weapons going forward, which is in and of itself also highly problematical. This is why it is so very important to keep in mind, as, Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow, point out in their book, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, could have potentially killed 100 million North Americans, out of a US Population of just over 186 million people, or about 54% of the US population in those days, and more than 100 million Soviet citizens, out of a Soviet Union population of just over 122 million people, or somewhat over 80% of the Soviet Union population in those days, plus millions of Europeans as well (12). These huge losses would have been catastrophic for both countries. Still, in all likelihood, the Soviet Union, would have quickly thereafter collapsed, especially coming so shortly after already losing some 27 million Soviet citizens, in the brutal war against Nazi-Germany. And, all of this occurring during a time, which in comparison with the military technology and capabilities of today, the nuclear bombs and missiles of those times, would be seen as being rather primitive and lacking in many different ways. This is another reason why now even “threatening with the use of nuclear weapons”, is so utterly criminal and irresponsible to all of humanity, and, this is especially the case in regards to the overwhelming majority of brown and black humanity living in countries that do not have any nuclear arms whatsoever. I know that someone will make the inane argument that Cuba was completely different because the Soviet Union had already placed nuclear missiles on the largest Caribbean Island, while Ukraine, is not a part of NATO nor does it have any western military forces or military equipment stationed on its territory. This is clearly not a serious counterargument to what I have been constantly arguing here about the urgent need on the part of the West and of the US, to take Russia’s national security interests, in regards to neighboring Ukraine, into ongoing and very serious consideration, if we truly want to start finding a real and also a long-lasting solution to this exploding conflict as well as to the deepening international political crisis situation at present.

In many ways, the very deplorable situation in Ukraine, in which we, namely all of humanity, now find ourselves caught in, can be said to have been launched into much higher gear with the February 7, 2019 decision by the Verkhovna Rada, in the Ukrainian unicameral parliamentary system, to provocatively amend the Ukrainian constitution, in order to emphasize Ukraine’s strategic objectives moving forward as joining the EU and also joining NATO (13). Quickly, thereafter the pro-western Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, signed the changes to the constitution, and, in so doing, obliging the president, the government and the parliament to stick to the chosen course. This was indeed a catastrophic domestic political decision, which was building on the longstanding western and NATO promise to Ukraine that it would someday be able to join NATO. As a result of all of this constitutional change, various Ukrainian leaders and especially Zelenskiy, the sitting Ukrainian President, has up until the very beginning of this utterly illegal, aggressive and criminal Russian invasion, emphatically time and time again being expressing as their and as his fervent wish and desire to join NATO and the EU, and, they were and he was doing all of this, even though Russia and various Russian leaders, continued to emphasize they would never accept such a situation, and, this especially in regards to NATO (14). Again, all of this is very bad and rather poor politics, on the part of the various Ukrainian leaders and their young and inexperienced President, who should have all stopped and seriously considered, the potential horrific military outcomes of their international political actions before continuing to embark on this very dangerous as well as on this highly provocative international military and political route. I am speculating here, but it is quite possible that the different Ukrainian leaders, were doing so because they had the impression from their various conversations and meetings with the many different Western and US leaders that the West and therefore NATO, would have much more strongly defended them and their country, if and when they were attacked by Russia. In so doing, they continually overlooked the very important fact that we are still living internationally, in a “self-help” system, and, especially after Vladimir Putin, had early on made the ugly threat with nuclear weapons, and, as a direct result of this threat, neither the United States, the United Kingdom, nor France or even Germany, which does not have any nuclear weapons, were going to take any great chances with their very own national security, in order to help Ukraine. Nonetheless, it was only after Russia, had proceeded to illegally attack and criminally invade his country of Ukraine, then all of a sudden, it seemingly occurred to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Russia, or at least present-day Russia, was quite serious about its threat of stopping Ukraine from joining NATO. Against this increasingly violent and humanly costly background, he subsequently indicated, he could agree with a plan for a neutral Ukraine, and, that he was also willing to talk to Putin about it.

Again, still another great and creeping danger, in this ongoing tense international military and political situation, that is constantly unfolding in Ukraine, from an analytical foreign policy standpoint, is the “basic attribution error”, which is a way of explaining one’s “enemy’s behavior and actions” in terms of her or his characteristics, which we have seen time and again being done in and across much of the North and West from the very beginning of the illegal, aggressive and criminal Russian invasion of Ukraine, in regards to the Russian President Vladimir Putin (Is he crazy? Is he living in some kind of a strange isolated and disconnected dreamworld of his own in regards to Ukraine? He’s only listening to small self-selected group of advisers, who only tell him what he wants to hear etc., etc., etc.,) rather than in terms of the context or of the specific situation of his military and political actions, and also with very little concrete proof to back up all of this rampant speculation while at the very same time claiming that one’s own behavior and actions namely the behavior of the western, of NATO, and of the US leaders, are being undertaken based on legitimate national security needs and interests and based on the humanitarian concerns being produced by the situation in question in Ukraine. In this context, Charles W. Kegley, Jr., in his book, Controversies in International Relations Theory, very importantly emphasizes the fact namely that policymakers have a tendency to absorb as well as to interpret all of the information they receive in ways that confirm rather than tend to challenge their existing beliefs, preferences, hopes, and expectations (15). You hopefully understand at least part of the argument by the now, namely the West, NATO, and the US, are obviously firmly standing up for the sovereignty of Ukraine, and also for freedom, democracy, and human rights against the brutally dictatorial and the monstrous Russians, who are just constantly lying about everything. The great danger in this ongoing military and deepening international political conflict and military crisis, is the very fact that this process is in not only happening on one side of this conflict and crisis, but that it is happening on both sides, which can then dangerously start to mutually reinforce one another going forward.

Iam convinced that political science should tie itself much closer in with history and it should also constantly infuse itself with insights from anthropology, ethnology and ethnography as well, and, all of which can only help to deepen our understanding about human beings and about human affairs even so much more going forward. Another major challenge, in this particular deepening Eastern European military and international political conflict, is the very fact that all of this is taking place within and between what anthropologists, call “dualistic societies”, although Ukraine, is also a dualistic society social type IIB, which also includes such countries as France, Italy, Spain, Brazil and India, wherein there is a somewhat much broader interpretation of what constitutes “right” or “wrong”, in relationship to the much more narrowly defined IIN nations such as Russia, the United States, Germany, The United Kingdom, and Canada just to name a few. Maybe, to a certain extent, this can help to explain some of the fluidity and of the inherent flexibility in the positions regularly being enunciated by the Ukrainian President Zelenskiy. In the IIN nations such as the United States and Russia, Germany and The United Kingdom, they all have a longstanding and a very strong tendency of seeing things in terms of opposing pairs. They are oftentimes seen as the world’s true Absolutists, in that they do tend to see things, as either right or wrong, true or untrue, good or bad, positive or negative, left or right, light or dark, and they have very little patience with people who have doubts or who cannot make up their minds. They are not very good in their dealings with situations in “gray areas”. To a certain extent, this is exactly what makes the increasingly messy military and political situation in Ukraine so difficult for all of them to deal with. This is because large parts of the conflict and of the ongoing crisis, is situated in “gray areas” as such, and they are not simply “black and white.”

These dualistic societies tend to have two classes, the Haves and the Have-Nots, the Ins and the Outs, with widely differing privileges, although in the IIN nations like the United States unlike the case in IIB dualistic societies, one with some effort and some good luck, can eventually climb up the social ladder. Government power in IIN dualistic societies, is firmly in the hands of the Have or of the In-group, and they often tend to pick their most outspoken and their most individualistic members as their leaders because they strongly tend to cherish competitive egoistic individualism. There is also a strong element of the xenophobic fear of outsiders in all of these dualistic societies. We saw that taking place in regards to African students and other foreign students trying to flee the war in Ukraine, and having time and again great difficulty in so doing, as others were allowed to go ahead of them instead. In “dualistic societies”, warfare and territorial expansion, is a frequent activity and they also have a strong tendency to torture and to kill the civilian populations of conquered societies, who they consider to be “bad”, “wrong” and inferior”. We are clearly seeing Russia exactly starting to engage in more and more of this type of egregious behavior now in Ukraine, as the US and much of the West, had done before it in Iraq and Afghanistan. These “dualistic societies” also tend to produce leaders with a dictatorial bent and this is especially the case in times of crisis and trouble. We have seen this happening time and again with different examples in various “dualistic societies” such as Adolf Hitler in Germany, Francisco Franco in Spain, Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union and now increasingly with Vladimir Putin in Russia, with Donald Trump in the US, and with Napolean in France (16).

Clearly, the greatest international military and political danger with these “dualistic societies” increasingly going at it in many different ways in the Ukraine, is that their much more absolutist conflicting outlooks, and, in which each side ultimately believes its side to be absolutely right, good, positive and true, and, that all these opposing attitudes, increasingly come to more and more dominate and to define the conflict, and, in so doing leading all of us ever more down a very dangerous path indeed. In other words, these various “dualistic societies” now confronting one another in various ways in Ukraine, are the types of societies very much more given to play zero-sum game politics in these situations. Again, we have already seen this playing out time and again, in this ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict and crisis in Ukraine, involving the West and the US, and, that is why it is, in this specific context, so very important, to bring in other very important countries in the world with different backgrounds and outlooks such as China, Brazil, Indonesia, India and Nigeria, in order to help mediate and to intensively negotiate a solution to this serious major problem facing us all now before it is too late to do so. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, at the very beginning of the profoundly illegal, aggressive and criminal invasion of Ukraine, had already indicated in a speech that he wanted a neutral Ukraine together with it becoming a demilitarized country as well as the denazification of Ukraine. There are indeed hard right-wing and neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine, such as the Azov Battalion, but early on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke out against those groups, although he later on did indeed start to at least loosely work together with some of them, seemingly because of their strong military professionalism and fanatism and given the increasing dangers of a Russian invasion of the country. Nonetheless, President Zelenskiy, had lost family to Nazi-Germany when they invaded his country and continued on with their genocidal policies by the killing of Ukrainian Jewish people and Roma, and I do not believe that anyone can really in anyway call him a neo-Nazi. Again, the fight against neo-Nazism and neo-Fascism, certainly also needs to take place in Ukraine given its specific history during WWII, but the problem here is that there are also some neo-Nazis and neo-Fascists at large in Russia as well. If, Putin was also regularly seriously going after them in Russia, he would have no problems with me whatsoever in this regard. In this context, there is also the very problematical fact that Vladimir Putin, has very cynically being supporting hard right-wing forces, in different countries in Western European countries such as France for some time, in order to try and to create political problems and political instability within those countries. In so doing, Putin also wants to try and weaken the European Union and the European institutions, which Moscow has long opposed, and, he is helping them as a result of the fact that many of these very same far-rightwing European politicians and their various Political Parties tend to be highly skeptical about the European Union (17).

I am all in favor of continually everywhere strongly and decisively fighting against neo-Nazis and neo-Fascists, but this has to be done all across Europe, and not just in one place or in one country. This will also be a part of my Peace and Neutrality plan and treaty proposal in order to protect all of the various interests of all of the different peoples including the Roma living in Ukraine moving forward. Still, I must say that if President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, chooses to stay and to continue to lead the fight, and this is certainly a very honorable thing to do on his part, against the highly illegal, aggressive and criminal invasion of his country by Russia, he will in all probability inevitably come to a tragic end together with many of the other leading and fiercely resisting Ukrainian political figures. Clearly, if such a deplorable situation was to occur, this specific Ukrainian political situation, would then as a direct result create a whole set of new challenges, in trying to under those new problematic set of domestic Ukrainian political circumstances, come up with a strong and a longstanding international peaceful solution, to the ongoing and to the deepening military crisis and international political conflict in the country. In this context, when the Russian President Vladimir Putin, is talking about the “denazification” of Ukraine, what he is in likelihood referring to here, is the ridding of the country of all of those political leaders as well as of all of those various Ukrainian peoples, who are vehemently opposed to the future brutal Russian military occupation of the country or of significant parts of the country, for however long that may last. Still, I do not believe that even if all of these people would eventually decide to leave Ukraine for the West that this will be enough for Russia, to be able to “easily control and rule” Ukraine or significant parts of it moving forward. I must start by emphasizing that the bold and complex multilayered Peace and Neutrality plan and eventually Treaty, I am proposing here will have somethings for everyone in it, but it will certainly not be able to have everything for everyone in it. I must begin by making this very clear. This is because in the present-day largely western and northern created international security, economic and political system and power configuration, such an outcome is simply not feasible. Clearly, over time, this white northern and western-devised and implemented international military, economic and political system, will have to be radically reconsidered and overhauled, given the fact that the rest of the black and brown world, is increasingly starting to close the gap in many different ways with the North and West. Much the very same thing goes for international relations theory, but again we are living now under these present-set of conditions and circumstances, and, whatever you may think of them, they are not going to change anytime soon. These very much needed and also these fundamentally required multilayered international political changes will not take place anytime soon. This is because such very important global structural changes are ultimately largely dependent on the ongoing transformations in the international and institutional power balance worldwide. Let me once again start by premising my bold, multilayered and complex Peace and Neutrality plan and treaty proposal for the ongoing conflict and crisis in Ukraine, which will certainly continue even after the Russia, has eventually gained “military control” over the country and/or over significant parts of it, on two central points of departure before laying out in much more detail the entire rest of my bold and complex peace and neutrality plan. One, there will be and there can be no productive and lasting solution, to the conflict now uglily playing itself out every day in Ukraine, without taking Russia’s national security interests, in regards to neighboring Ukraine (its “near-abroad”), into very serious consideration. This is simply a conditio sine qua non for any such long-term workable Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality plan and treaty proposal, to be able to be negotiated in the hopefully (near) future.

A gainst this tense and complex international background, it is important to emphasize the fact that Russia, does have a veto in the UN Security Council, one out of five to do so now, and this is a very small number of countries, which should urgently be enlarged, so as to make the UN Security Council, much more representative of the diverse world population, and, to do so, in order to include at least India, Brazil, and also Nigeria, in a now much different world than the world after WWII. The world population is made up of close to 90% of “black and brown people”. Clearly, in this context, Russia, would only choose to allow Ukraine, to change and/or to opt out of the signed and ratified Ukrainian-Russian Peace and Neutrality Treaty (URPNT), if by that time, the overall security and political conditions as well as the military circumstances in Europe and in the world, had radically and they had fundamentally changed in such a way, which had in the meantime made Ukraine’s neutrality no longer all that important. Therefore, and under those new set of conditions and circumstances, I also do not believe that NATO, would also be relevant any longer. On the other hand, in the new federal Ukrainian Constitution, other normal and general International Treaties and Economic agreements, will only need the vote of two-thirds of the Verkhovna Rada or Lower Chamber as well as two-thirds of the Upper Chamber or People’s House of States or of the Senate to pass, and be sent to the President to be signed into law. Ukraine will have a President, who will be elected in free and fair elections by the citizens of Ukraine for a term of five years. In the new federal Ukrainian Constitution, everyone who has lived for 5 years or more in Ukraine, will have a fundamental right to participate in local elections and in the elections for mayors and for other local leaders. This will be done in order to make the new Ukraine, as democratic and as inclusive as possible for everyone, who has lived there for some time. If, they want to participate in other elections in Ukraine, they will have to obtain the Ukrainian nationality.

The main tasks of the President of Ukraine, will be to lay out the general outlines of both Ukraine’s defense and foreign policies, which will both be grounded on non-nuclear neutrality, as well as lay out the general outlines of his or her socio-economic, ethnic (minority) policies, environmental, educational, housing and infrastructural policies. It will be up to the Prime Minister and his/her cabinet, who will at least once a week have to meet with the President, in the Presidential Palace, to carry out and to fill in the daily and the long-term aspects of all of these Presidential policy outlines, in ongoing very close-collaboration with the sitting President. The Prime Minister and her/his cabinet, will be serving four-year terms in office, just as the members of parliament of the Verkhovna Rada also do. If, for whatever reason, the President, wants to fire or to get rid of the Prime Minister, he or she, will need the majority of both houses or chambers of parliament to go along with him in that in all probability at various times a quite significant and at other times maybe even a quite controversial political decision. This will especially be the case when the President wants to change the Prime Minister, and, the Prime Minister refuses to go along with the President’s request. If, the parliament, disagrees with the President’s decision to fire the Prime Minister, then the President and the Prime Minister, will both have to find a much better way to be able to work much more effectively together going forward. If, that mutual political and ideological attempt, turns out to be impossible after say a period of four months of trying, then the President can tell the Parliament, she/he is being forced on the basis of “urgent national interests” circumstances, to replace the Prime Minister, and the bicameral Ukrainian Parliament, can then under those specific set of national political conditions, only stop this from happening by a 70% majority vote in both houses of parliament. The 70% number is being used here in order to allow the ongoing governing of Ukraine to be able to continually function effectively moving forward.

The Ukrainian President will in all likelihood come from the largest political parties in Ukraine most of the time. It is quite likely that if the President, cannot receive the necessary political support of parliament, to replace his or her Prime Minister, this will signify that the sitting Ukrainian President, has lost the backing of his political party as well as from his other supporters in parliament. This will inevitably mean that if the President, chooses to run for re-election under these circumstances, they will have to either get the backing of other political parties or create their own political party in the process. It is the task of the Prime Minister, to replace the members of his cabinet, which he or she should do in ongoing close consultation with the President. If, the President and the Prime Minister, were to differ on especially the removal of the Ukrainian Foreign Minister and/or of the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, given the central importance of these ministerial positions in relationship to the URPNT, then it will be ultimately up to the both houses and/or chambers of parliament by a majority vote to decide, if, those very important national Ukrainian ministers, should remain in office or if they should depart. To remove a Minister from the Cabinet only requires a majority vote in parliament in order to do so. This can be quite crucial for Ukraine, if, say all this or these political attempt(s) to remove either one or both of these important Ministers, has to do with fundamental disagreements regarding the URPNT moving forward between the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defense. If, for whatever reasons, the both houses of the bicameral Ukrainian parliamentary system, happen to disagree with one another about the removal of either or of one of these very important Ministers, in question, then the both chambers or houses of parliament, will each have to designate representatives to meet in order to see if they can come up and work out an acceptable compromise for the both of them. If, this is not possible, then the most democratic national representative body in the country, the Verkhovna Rada, can unilaterally decide by a vote of 60%, to remove the Minister or the Ministers from their respective posts. The Upper Chamber or the People’s House of States can only stop this very important political decision on the part of the lower chamber from happening by a vote of 80%, of its representatives. Again, if, the Prime Minister, wants to fire a Minister or Ministers from her or from his cabinet, and, he or she, cannot find the requisite political and ideological support in parliament to do so, it will be time for him/her to step down from their post. If, not, they will be quickly, in all likelihood, facing a vote of no-confidence in parliament, which only requires a simple majority in both chambers of the Ukrainian parliament.

All of the various Mayors in Ukraine, should be elected for four-year terms, and they can remain in office for a maximum of three terms, in other worlds, for a total of twelve years in office, as a mayor. If, they win twice and if they subsequently lose their re-election bid, they can, if they so choose, still run for one last term in office, as mayor. All of these different electoral terms, namely the four-, the five- and the six-year terms, are being put into effect here, in order to constantly energize democratic rule as well as to afford the larger Ukrainian population, regular democratic input, into their various administrations and forms of government on the different levels of the federal Ukrainian state. The Ukrainian President, can subsequently only run for one more five-year term in office for the rest of his or her life. If, he or she loses their presidential re-election campaign, they can, if they choose to do so in the future, run once again for the Presidency of Ukraine, and, if they are eventually elected President once again, this will be the last five-year term for them, as the President of Ukraine for the rest of their political life as well as of their natural life. The President can be removed from office for the following reasons namely if she or he, is incapable of carrying out their tasks for health and/or for psychological or psychiatric reasons, and, if they choose, not to at least temporarily step down and/or not to temporarily step aside from the most important political office in the country under these very trying circumstances, and, this will be the case, until they can once again, in an accountable fashion and in a responsible manner, carry out their utterly relevant constitutional and political tasks and/or or if they “misuse and abuse” their position as President of Ukraine for personal and familial gain and/or by committing violent and criminal acts against the crucial foreign policy and the crucial national security interests of the country as well as against the interests of the citizens of Ukraine. In particular, under both the “misuse and abuse” provision as well as also under the constitutional provision concerning “committing violent and criminal acts against the country as well as against the interests of the citizens of Ukraine”. If, the Ukrainian President, has to step aside, the head of or chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada, will temporarily take over their position for however long needed. A future Ukrainian President, can certainly be impeached, if she or he tries, to change and/or to opt Ukraine out of the Ukrainian-Russian Peace and Neutrality Treaty (URPNT) without first meticulously following all of the necessary steps indicated and codified in some detail in the above in both the URPNT and in the federal Ukrainian Constitution. To impeach the Ukrainian President, will require a two-thirds majority, in both of the parliamentary bodies compromising the overall federal Ukrainian bicameral parliament going forward. The different governors of the various oblasts or states or provinces and of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, will also each be chosen for five-year terms and they will be able to run for only one more term in office, if they were successful, and never again after that, if they are successful once again. If, they are not successful in their re-election campaign as governors, they eventually can still run for one extra five-year term down the road, if they choose to do so. If they win political office once again that will be the very last time of them being able to be governor for the rest of their life. The various governors of the different oblasts or states or provinces or people’s republics and also of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as it is called in the existing Ukrainian Constitution, can also all be impeached for the following reasons namely if she or he, is incapable of carrying out their tasks for health and/or for psychological or psychiatric reasons, and, if they choose not to at least temporarily step down and/or temporarily step aside from their very important political office under those very trying circumstances, and, until they can once again, in an accountable fashion and in a responsible manner carry out their constitutional and political tasks, and/or on the basis “misuse and abuse” of their positions as governors for personal and familial gain and/or for “committing violent and/or criminal acts against their oblasts or states or provinces or People’s Republics and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as well as against their respective inhabitants, and the different governors can also be impeached for violating or for attempting to violate the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine as such.

Again, it is important to emphasize here that all of the other powers not specifically directed towards and/or reserved for the national Ukrainian government and limited to the national Ukrainian government, will be those of the oblasts or of the provinces or states or of the various People’s Republics and/or Autonomous Republic of Crimea whenever it rejoins Ukraine going forward and/or they will necessarily accrue to them going forward. If an oblast or province or state or a People’s Republic or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, have problems dealing with these new and over time evolving and increasing responsibilities, they will be actively aided by the national Ukrainian state, both financially and administratively and also when needed talent-wise, until they are able to deal with all of these new responsibilities by themselves. Whenever there are urgent constitutional disagreements with the various oblasts or with the provinces or different states or with the People’s Republics and/or with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, or whatever else the many different administrative regions, would prefer to be called moving forward, in the new federal Constitution of Ukraine, and, with the state governors and with local state administrations, concerning the specific authority of the central or of the national Ukrainian government, in Kyiv, concerning its constitutional ability and its constitutional power, to act in a certain way in regards to them in their various oblasts or states or administrative regions or People’s Republics or Autonomous Republic, this very important constitutional question, if it cannot politically quickly be worked out between the different and dissenting parties, then this constitutional issue, question or controversy, should be taken to the Ukrainian Supreme Court, which will then have the final say in the matter in the fundamental interests of the ongoing unity and of the continuing stability of Ukraine.

I must say here also that although, coming from where I come from, and, especially coming from a place, which does not possess any primitive and barbaric nuclear weapons, I certainly do remain quite enraged about Vladimir Putin’s early threat to potentially use nuclear weapons to destroy the world, and, in so doing, to monstrously take everyone with him in the “white Russian” vicious global genocidal act, if anyone tried to stop his invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Still, I have over these last nearly three weeks increasingly come to wonder, if Putin, had not done so, where we would or could have been by now, seeing how the West and how the United States, are constantly sending more and more different types of armaments and weapons to Ukraine, in order for them to continue to resist the illegal, aggressive and criminal invasion of their country. Had Vladimir Putin not warned early on about a potential disastrous nuclear confrontation between Russia and the West under US leadership, is it really quite unimaginable that we, at this point in time, may indeed be looking, at such a horrific nuclear situation, coming closer and closer to reality??? Who would have really seriously thought that in 2022, we would once again anxiously be discussing and worrying about nuclear war? That is why we indeed need now more than ever to turn what I will call here “the 1986 Reykjavik understanding and moment” where both Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, had surprised their advisors and aides by declaring their intent to abolish all nuclear weapons in ten years. Still, this deeply enlightened decision and crucial agreement, was to quickly fall apart. We all now everywhere urgently as a result of the latest genocidal nuclear scare, need to constantly demand and to continually push for turning and for the transforming of “the 1986 Reykjavik understanding and moment” into both a global and an eternal understanding for the good all of humankind moving forward (19).

I will end this complex multi-layered Peace and non-nuclear Neutrality plan and proposal both domestically and internationally by emphasizing the fact to Russia as well as to the West under US leadership, that it would be in all of their own very best national security interests, in regards to Ukraine moving forward for them to come together and to work together, under the leadership of the United Nations (UN), in order for all of them, in so doing, to devise a mutually acceptable formula in setting up and in funding the Ukraine Rebuilding and Reconstruction Fund (URRF). This massive rebuilding and reconstruction undertaking after the recent illegal, aggressive and criminal Russian invasion of Ukraine, will be the second rebuilding and reconstruction of Ukraine, which had been one of the main victims of WWII, in which it had lost, 7 million of its citizens (about 15% of its population) as well as 40% of its wealth and 80% of its industrial and agricultural equipment. Things are not that bad as yet, but the longer the war continues, inevitably the worst things will become in Ukraine, both for the country and for its diverse peoples. At present, there are numbers being bandied about by various experts that estimate the damage and destruction already done to the country by the ongoing war and conflict in Ukraine (its “near-abroad”), to be at about $100 billion (20). Again, that number may be on the high side now, and, the damage may only be between $30 to $50 billion, but it will certainly not be on the high side for much longer, if this brutal war and deepening conflict, continues to viciously play itself out in many different ways all across Ukraine, and, to continue to wreak havoc every day more and more, on endless roads, bridges, (nuclear) power plants, residential buildings, homes, hospitals, schools, airports, factories, businesses as well as on the rich Ukrainian environment. I am absolutely convinced that it would fundamentally be in the very best interest of future Russian relations with Ukraine, which certainly for some time to come even under the very best of circumstances, will be quite complex and rather vexed, if, the Russian Federation, was willing to step forward and to agree, to fund some 50%, of the rebuilding and of the reconstruction costs of Ukraine while both Western and Eastern Europe as well as the United States, would each agree to fund 25%, of the rebuilding and of the reconstruction costs, of the heavily damaged Eastern European country. All of the various parties, Russia, Western Europe and Eastern Europe, the United States, involved in many different ways, in this ongoing war and conflict, bear some measure of responsibility and they also carry some measure of blame for what has occurred in Ukraine, which is not a very wealthy country, and it would have great difficulties funding its rebuilding and reconstruction costs going forward, since the illegal, aggressive and criminal Russian invasion from various angles and parts of Russia and Belarus on February 24, 2022. If, Russia, after the end of the war and war, in Ukraine, does not have the funds available, to pay her part in the damage and destruction, which it has violently and destructively imposed on the sovereign and on the independent neighboring country, then I would strongly suggest that 20–30%, as a result of negotiations between the various parties, of the money being made from its oil and gas exports to Europe, should be put aside in order to continually fund, its 50%, of the estimated damage and destruction done to Ukraine during the war and conflict.

It is crucial to emphasize the fact here that the future rebuilding and the reconstruction costs, will have to be done in a very careful and detailed study and estimation, which should be undertaken by a “diverse group of leading experienced and independent international experts”, under UN leadership. Russia also has some sovereign funds in and across the West as well as bank accounts, and those various funds, should also be tapped into to help pay for its 50%, of the damage and destruction moving forward. All of these various streams of money and funds, would be automatically deposited by the various Eastern European and Western countries, which Russia sells oil and gas to, including the US when it once again starts importing Russian oil, into the Ukraine Rebuilding and Reconstruction Fund (URRF), and, this will be a strong and a transparent international organization on which Russian experts, will also have a seat, under UN leadership, so that they can ensure that the Russian funds and the Russian money, is being used for exactly what is what proposed to do. Not only Ukrainian, Eastern and Western European and US construction firms, but also Russian construction firms, should all be involved in this large project, and whenever possible they should do so together, in the rebuilding and reconstruction of a modern and of a new Ukraine, which in all likelihood, will certainly require some time to complete. The mass and complex rebuilding and reconstruction work, being done by all of the various firms and companies from all over the world, needs to be carefully overlooked and it needs to be constantly assessed by “a diverse and independent group of international rebuilding and of reconstruction experts”. In this context, if, and, when there are any problems with the important rebuilding and reconstruction work being done in and across Ukraine, the firm and/or companies, in question, will very quickly and urgently, need to find a way to fix those problems and they will also have to find a better way moving forward to ensure “high-quality” rebuilding and reconstruction work on their part or parts of the overall project or else their contract, will be automatically voided by the “diverse and independent international experts” overseeing the work, as a result. They will equally be faced with a huge fine and they will be sued for the poor work they had delivered. Again, the rebuilding and the reknitting of close and of warm relations and feelings, between Russia and Russian people, on the one side, and, Ukraine and many or most of the Ukrainian people, on the other side, will naturally take some time to realize moving forward, but, I certainly do believe, if, Russia, was to do the right thing and to contribute its fair share, to the rebuilding and to the reconstruction of a new and of a modern Ukraine that, in the process, of so doing it will be laying down, a very solid foundation, on which down the road very good and friendly relations between the both diverse countries and the both diverse peoples, will be able to grow and maybe, one day, vibrantly bloom again in the future, in the benefit of all.

© Gregory Gilbert Gumbs

Notes

1) Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joining NATO in March 12, 1999: NATO: Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic Become Full Members by Julie Moffett March 09, 1999 00.00 GMT, March 8, 2022, https://www.rferl. org/a/1090802.html; Maciej Tyburski, The Accession of Poland, The Czech Republic and Hungary to NATO, March 8, 2022, https://warsawinstitute.org. accession-poland-czech-republic-hungary-nato/

2) See for more about Ukraine history and its complex, often interwoven, and at various times vexed relationship with neighboring Russia as well as of the translation of its name: Angela Stent, Putin’s World: Russia Against the West And With The Rest (New York: Twelve, 2019), 176–194; See for more on the Melian Dialogue: Thucydides, The Melian Dialogue. In Paul R. Viotti and Mark V. Kauppi, International Relations Theory: Realism, Pluralism, Globalism and Beyond Third Edition (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999), 101; See also: Donald Kagan, who translates it somewhat differently but in effect saying very much the same thing: “for it has always been ordained that the weaker are kept down by the stronger” (1.76.2): Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War (New York: Penguin Books, 2004), 248.

3) J. Ann Tickner, Re-visioning Security. In Ken Booth and Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theory Today (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995), 176.

4) Ted Galen Carpenter, Many predicted NATO expansion would lead to war. Those warnings were ignored, March 5, 2022, www.guardian.com Mon 28 Feb 2022 14.00 EST.

5) Gorbachev says U.S. became “arrogant” after Soviet Union collapsed, March 9, 2022, www.cbsnews.com/news/gorbachev December 24, 2021 4.53AM/AFP

6) Andrei Tapalaga, Secret Study From 1945 Shows How Many Nukes It Takes To End Humanity, March 10, 2022, www.historyofyesterday.com/secret-study-from-1945-shows-how-many-nukes-it-takes-to-end-humanity-47ef796ac173; See also: James Rogers, This is How Many Nukes it Would Take To Destroy Society, March 10, 2022, www.nypost.com/2018/06/15/it-would-only-take-100-nuclear-weapons-to-destroy-society/; See for more on the fact that it would only take about ten to a hundred “super-nukes” to end humanity: Arpita Adhya, Study Reveals: How Many Nuclear Bombs Would It Take To Destroy The World, March 10, 2022, https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/02/ 28/study-reveals-how-many-nuclear-bombs-would-it-take-to-destry-the-world/

7) See for the nuclear weapons in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the way in which they were eventually given up by Ukraine: Ukraine, Nuclear Weapons, and Security Guarantees at a Glance: March 10, 2022, https://www.armscontrol.org/ factsheet/Ukraine-Nuclear-Weapons; See also: Ukraine Special Weapons-Nuke, March 10, 2022, https://nuke.fas. org/guide/ukraine/; See also: Angela Stent, Putin’s World: Russia Against The West and With The Rest (New York: Twelve, 2019), 186–188.

8) See for “little Russia” or “southwest Russia”: Anne Applebaum, Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine (New York: Anchor Books, 2017), 3, 9, 23; See for Putin’s contemptuous view that Ukraine is not really a separate state and for the longstanding view of Ukrainians as being the “little brothers” of Russians: Angela Stent, Putin’s World: Russia Against The West and With The Rest (New York: Twelve, 2019), 27, 175–176; See for more on homo nullius and terra nullius: Jodi A. Byrd, The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011), xxi, 64–65.

9) See for more on Ukraine being one of the poorest countries in Europe, March 8, 2022, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/poorest-countries-in-europe; See for more on how bad and wasteful military spending is on society in comparison to spending in the civilian economy and how it ultimately limits economic growth: Patrick Hiller, The Effect of Military Spending on Economic Growth, March 8, 2022, https: //peacesciencedigest.org/effects-military-spending-economic-growth/ January 2, 2018; See also: Robert Pollin & Heidi Garrett-Peltier, The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Spending Priorities An Updated Analysis, March 8, 2022, https://peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/published_ study /spending_priorities_PERI.pdf

10) See for more on the very close economic relations between the Donbas region in Ukraine and Russia: Angela Stent, Putin’s World: Russia Against The West and With The Rest (New York: Twelve, 2019), 194–195.

11) See for how very important Ukraine is to Russia: Angela Stent, Putin’s World: Russia Against The West and With The Rest (New York: Twelve, 2019), 176, 206.

12) See for the massive killings and dying from a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union and also for the end to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999), 1, 329–366; See for the US Population size in 1962, March 9, 2022, https://www.multpl.com/united-states-population/table/by-year; See for Russia-Population 1962, March 9, 2022, https://countryeconomy.com/ demography/russia?year=1962

13) Ukraine Amends Constitution to Cement EU, NATO Course, March 8, 2022, https://voanews.com/a/Ukraine-amends-constitution-to-cement-eu-nato-course/4776669. html.

14) Ukraine President signs amendment on NATO, EU membership, March 8, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/cb742d45ae394798bbc7891d30efaa71; See for Russia’s strong view about NATO and against Ukraine joining NATO and also against the further expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe especially after the joining of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in 1999: Angela Stent, Putin’s World: Russia Against The West and With The Rest (New York: Twelve, 2019), 7, 206, 293–294, 306.

15) Charles W. Kegley, Jr., Controversies in International Relations Theory (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995), 52–53.

16) Julian Granberry, The Americas That Might Have Been (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2005), 52–61.

17) Matt Bradley, Europe’s Far-Right Enjoys Backing from Russia’s Putin Feb 12, 2017 9.09 A.M. EST/Updated Feb 13, 2017 3.48 A.M. EST March 13, 2022, https://www.nbsnew. com/news/world/europe-s-far-right-enjoys-backing-s-putin-n718926.

18) See for more on the entire Crimean issue: Angela Stent, Putin’s World: Russia Against The West and With The Rest (New York: Twelve, 2019), 11–12, 188, 194–198; See also: Steven Pifer, Crimea: Six years after illegal annexation, March 15, 2022, https://www. brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/17/crimea-six-years-after-illegal-annexation.

19) Angela Stent, Putin’s World: Russia Against The West and With The Rest (New York: Twelve, 2019), 299–300; Reagan and Gorbachev: The Reykjavik Summit, March 16, 2022, https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/reagan-and-gorbachev-reykjavik-summit.

20) See for more on WWII damage in Ukraine: Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe (New York: Basic Books, 2021), 291–292; David Lawder, Ukraine war damage tops $100 billion so far, economic adviser says, March 15, 2022, https://www,reuters.com/world/ ukraine-economic-adviser-says-war-damage-tops-100-billion-so-far-2022–03–10/.