NATO Military Interventions in Kosovo, Libya, Afghanistan and Their Impact on Relations with Russia After the Cold War
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Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2014 NATO military interventions in Kosovo, Libya, Afghanistan and their impact on relations with Russia after the Cold War Dovydas Rogulis West Virginia University Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Rogulis, Dovydas, "NATO military interventions in Kosovo, Libya, Afghanistan and their impact on relations with Russia after the Cold War" (2014). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 251. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/251 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. 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NATO MILITARY INTERVENTIONS IN KOSOVO, LIBYA, AFGHANISTAN AND THEIR IMPACT ON RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA AFTER THE COLD WAR Dovydas Rogulis Thesis submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Robert Blobaum, Chair, Ph.D. James Siekmeier, Ph.D. Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, Ph.D. Department of History Morgantown, West Virginia 2014 Keywords: NATO, Russia, military interventions, Kosovo, Libya, Afghanistan, geopolitics, international relations, geopolitical discourses. Copyright Dovydas Rogulis Abstract NATO MILITARY INTERVENTIONS IN KOSOVO, LIBYA, AFGHANISTAN AND THEIR IMPACT ON RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA AFTER THE COLD WAR Dovydas Rogulis This thesis seeks to find out how NATO military interventions in Kosovo, Libya and Afghanistan have negatively affected relations with Russia. In order to achieve the aim and hypothesis of the study, the critical geopolitical approach is chosen as a theoretical framework. The schematic critical geopolitics conceptualization of Gearóid Ó. Tuathail is used as the method of research. This thesis mostly pays attention to three essential parts of the critical geopolitics: “formal geopolitics” (analyses of think tanks, specialists, etc.), “practical geopolitics” (the decisions of policy makers, official statements, documents, strategies and speeches) and “popular geopolitics” (media discourse and opinion surveys). The combination of these three elements allows for a determination of certain NATO and Russian geopolitical discourses towards crises in Kosovo, Libya and Afghanistan. In relation to these crises, NATO and Russian geopolitical discourses are assessed from very positive, positive, neutral, to negative and very negative. This approach provides an opportunity to see how both sides have scripted these crises and how over the long term NATO’s military interventions in Kosovo, Libya and Afghanistan have influenced relations with Russia and affected the international order. Moreover, descriptive method, discourse analysis and a comparative approach are used to scrutinize Russian and NATO’s geopolitical discourses towards crises. The analyses of NATO and Russian geopolitical discourses show the hypothesis that different NATO and Russian geopolitical discourses towards crises in Kosovo, Libya and Afghanistan have led to reciprocal accruing disagreements is only partly correct. The crisis of Kosovo in 2008 marked the end of the Russian flexible policy towards NATO and a new beginning of a permanently hostile geopolitical discourse against NATO in Europe. NATO military interventions in Kosovo, Libya and Afghanistan have negatively affected relations with Russia, mostly in Europe. Mutual cooperation and diplomatic disputes towards crises in Libya and Afghanistan are of minor importance in comparison with NATO-Russian relations on the European continent. Consequently, Russia concentrates most of its geopolitical attention towards Europe. Acknowledgements For those who always believe in what I do. iii Table of contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... iii Table of contents ................................................................................................................... iv List of figures, tables and interviews ......................................................................................v Abbreviation list.................................................................................................................... vi Introduction .............................................................................................................................1 1. Theoretical Overview of the Critical Geopolitics ...............................................................3 1.1. The development of the geopolitical approach ........................................................... 3 1.2. The critical geopolitical approach ............................................................................... 5 1.3. The method of research ............................................................................................... 8 2. Methodology .....................................................................................................................13 3. Case Studies in Times of Crisis ........................................................................................18 3.1. Kosovo ...................................................................................................................... 18 3.2. Afghanistan ............................................................................................................... 19 3.3. Libya.......................................................................................................................... 21 4. Geopolitical Discourses during Crises ..............................................................................23 4.1. NATO’s geopolitical discourses ............................................................................... 23 4.1.1. The Kosovo crisis ............................................................................................... 23 4.1.2. Afghanistan in crisis ........................................................................................... 29 4.1.3. The Libyan crisis ................................................................................................ 35 4.2. Russian geopolitical discourses ................................................................................. 39 4.2.1. The Kosovo crisis ............................................................................................... 39 4.2.2. Afghanistan in crisis ........................................................................................... 46 4.2.3. The Libyan crisis ................................................................................................ 52 5. The Interaction of Geopolitical Discourses ......................................................................55 Conclusions ...........................................................................................................................60 Bibliography .........................................................................................................................62 Appendix ...............................................................................................................................71 iv List of figures, tables and interviews Maps: Map Nr. 1 H. J. Mackinder’s The World-Island and the Heartland 71 Map Nr. 2 NATO transition supply roads to Afghanistan 79 Tables: Table Nr. 1 Difference between Modern and Critical geopolitics 5 Table Nr. 2 Geopolitics: a critical geopolitics conzeptualization 8 Table Nr. 3 The western media`s coverage of ‘terrorism’ and the ‘terrorism in Afghanistan’ 31 Table Nr. 4 Public opinion towards the crisis in Libya 38 Table Nr. 5 NATO’s and the Russian geopolitical discourses towards crisis 55 Table Nr. 6 Casualties of NATO forces in Afghanistan 80 Interviews: Interview Nr. 1 Interview with the Senior Counselor Denis Gonchar in the Russian Embassy in Washington D.C. (13.02.2014) 72 Interview Nr. 2 Interview with Dr. Ieva Karpaviciute, a special Lithuanian attaché to NATO HQ (28.02.2014) 74 Interview Nr. 3 Interview with the senior expert Vadim Volovoj from the Centre of Geopolitical Studies (02.03.2014) 75 Interview Nr. 4 Interview with Professor Boris Barkanov, a lecturer in Political Science at West Virginia University (05.03.2014) 77 v Abbreviation list ACT – Allied Command Transformation AWACS – Airborne Warning and Control System BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States CNN – Cable News Network (one of the media groups in the US) CSTO – Collective Security Treaty Organization FRY – Former Republic of Yugoslavia ISAF – International Security Assistance Force KFOR – Kosovo Force KLA – Kosovo Liberation Army MENA – Middle East and North Africa NAC – North Atlantic Council NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organisation OAF – Operation Allied Force SHAPE – Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe UN – United Nations UN SC – United Nations