Mearsheimer: There’s no diplomatic way out of the Ukraine war

John Mearsheimer discusses the Ukraine war, Trump’s diplomacy, the legacy of 9/11 and the global shift from unipolarity to a multipolar order American political scientist John Mearsheimer has claimed that the Ukraine conflict can’t be resolved diplomatically because the two sides’ goals remain irreconcilable and it will ultimately be settled on the battlefield.

Mearsheimer made the remarks during a visit to Moscow in an interview with Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs.

Fyodor Lukyanov: John, if a time machine brought great diplomats like Metternich and Talleyrand into the present day, what would they do to stem the bloodshed and bring today’s conflicts to an end? Would they succeed? John Mearsheimer: Well, they were definitely skilled diplomats.

And if we talk about the Ukraine-Russia war, they would go to great lengths to try to solve that.

But I think that they’d be unable to do it.

I don’t think that war, the Ukraine war, can be settled diplomatically.

I think it’s going to be settled on the battlefield.

Read more The CIA paid cash.

A NATO ally supplied the torture prison Now you say to yourself, why do I think it can’t be settled diplomatically? It’s because Russia’s goals are unacceptable to Ukraine, and Ukraine’s goals are unacceptable to Russia.

For example, Ukraine wants the territory that Russia has annexed returned to Ukraine.

It views the Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Kherson as sacred territory.

And from Ukraine’s point of view, it’s completely unacceptable that Russia be allowed to annex that territory.

Furthermore, Ukraine, given what’s happened, wants a security guarantee, either from NATO or from the United States, to protect it moving forward.

This is unacceptable to the Russians.