The situation in Ukraine has a historical element dating back to its independence from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991.
The Ukrainian crisis began with popular unrest over the Pro-Russian, Ukrainian president’s decision to cancel a free trade agreement with the European Union. Years of government corruption curtailed Ukraine’s advancement towards a market economy, leaving Ukrainian citizens in a dire economic situation. According to the Cato Institute, Ukraine’s Gross Domestic Product per capita in 1990 was $8,200, nearly the same as Poland’s. Poland’s GDP is now $18,300 while Ukraine’s has decreased to $6,400. The economic deficiency of Ukraine is clear.
In recent events, Russia has invaded the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Russian Parliament has voted to annex Crimea. With Russia’s occupying the peninsula, a referendum was held in Crimea with citizens voting 97 percent in support of becoming part of Russia. Neither Ukraine nor the rest of the world recognizes the referendum as legitimate. Even if it wasn’t suspected the vote had been rigged, the Ukrainian constitution requires all alterations to Ukrainian territories to “be resolved exclusively by the All-Ukrainian referendum.”
Putin’s interest in annexing Crimea lies in Russia’s naval base on Crimea’s southwestern tip. Currently, Russia is leasing the naval base until 2042. The base is considered to be of high importance to Russia’s global military powers. Putin claims that his move to rejoin Crimea, whose Russian population is 59 percent, with Russia is in the name of reunification. Unsurprisingly, this has sparked comparisons to Hitler’s Germany.
It is unacceptable for a country to invade another’s sovereign territory. Putin must face serious repercussions for doing so. By using the divided Ukrainian government to his advantage, he has spat in the face of the Ukrainian citizens’ right to liberty through peaceful protest and economic freedom. Every human being has the inherent right to life, liberty and property. The United States must stand in solidarity with the free world to denounce Russia’s actions. However, the U.S. must not intervene militarily.
The foreign policy hawks in the Republican Party and the humanitarian interventionists in the Democratic Party have it wrong. America is not the policeman of the world. We can simultaneously stand for freedom and not encroach on the liberties of sovereign nations. Many times, economic realities are greater than military intervention.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul had it correct when he said that Russia’s actions come at an economic cost. While it is clear the Russian military overwhelmingly has the power to seize Crimea, its stock market is dropping quickly and its economy is dependent on a stable Ukraine for exports. The cost of Russia’s actions will likely be “universal condemnation from Europe and America and isolation from trade and the benefits of behaving and participating in the civilized world,” Paul said. The economic reality is harsh for Russia, but many believe the power-hungry Putin doesn’t really care. Putin must consider Paul’s second point, however, that 80 percent of Russia’s gas and oil cross Ukraine. Any militant Ukrainian could quickly disrupt Russia’s economic livelihood with a disruption to pipelines through a simple explosive device. Regardless of pipeline disruption, the U.S. could supply oil and gas to all of Europe, effectively devastating the Russian economy and ensuring pressures from Russian citizens toward Putin.
We citizens must call on President Obama to announce his support to legalize export and exploration of our gas and oil. Our president must stop blocking the Keystone XL Pipeline and allow capitalism to do its work. Free trade effectively punishes inhumane acts of violence and power. If given the choice, the Western world will choose American oil and gas in an effort to sanction Russia.
Furthermore, the U.S. can expand travel restrictions and freeze assets for Russian officials, request that Russia’s G-8 membership be revoked and block Russia from participating in other political and economic alliances.
We must not involve ourselves in another futile war to protect interests that are not ours. Our generation has only known war. For nearly the entirety of college students’ lives, we have been in endless conflicts to protect the interests of others. It is time the U.S. looks toward a period of responsible non-intervention. It is best for the U.S. economy and our own lives to exercise the blessings of trade and limited diplomacy as solutions to conflict. Avoiding military involvement and aid to Ukraine will free the U.S. from further debt obligations, improving the economic future for us as college students — even if that improvement is only slight in the grand scale of our debt crisis.
It is possible to enable equal rights and self-determination without U.S. military involvement and without foreign aid to countries involved in conflict. Detractors will call a non-interventionist vision for the U.S. “isolationist” and “a weakening of our world leader status.” However, this is not true. The U.S. can use its economic position to lead the free world and ensure the respect and dignity of the nation’s sovereignty. This brings me back to this message the U.S. must send to Putin: “Don’t mistake our reluctance for war for a lack of resolve.”
