우크라이나 위기와 미국-러시아 관계: 대외정체성 대립의 장기화

Abstract

This paper, approaching US-Russia conflict and clashes over the Ukraine crisis from the perspective of identity confrontation, aims to make up for the explanatory restriction embedded in neo-realist or geopolitical approach and make argument that the confrontation of international identities between US and Russia is likely to last long. On the bottom of US-Russia conflict lies clashes of two irreconcilable positions: while Washington has regarded Putinite Russia consolidated with sovereign democracy discourse as a challenger to the liberalist world order and the West-led international norms, Moscow has thought that Washington has an intention to weaken Russia or at least Putinism, which has sought its unique values and development model different from those of the Atlantic world, and has taken counter-measures against it. With Ukraine crisis, in particular, as two parties have become confident in their belief, distrust and alienation with each other have been deepened. The international identity confrontation between US and Russia seems likely to last long due to the three factors as follows: the difficulty of reorientation by Russia of sovereign democracy and non-Western international identity, Washington’s position of not allowing Russian exceptionalism, and the changing configuration of global power relations relating to rising China.