US-Ukraine Relations In The Post-Soviet Era

Abstract

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 radically altered the world order. The Cold War was over, and the USSR became 15 independent states. This interdisciplinary research focuses on the political history of the bi-lateral relationship between the US and Ukraine in the post-Communist Era, primarily by analyzing executive-level interactions between both states. The purpose of this study is to explain how US-Ukrainian relations have evolved from Ukraine’s independence from the USSR to the present day in an effort to determine the future of US-Ukrainian relations in the short- and long-term future. This study includes an analysis of US government documents, official communications by the US, Ukrainian, and Russian governments, media reports from all three states, and the integration of numerous academic publications on the subject. Our central argument is that the policies pursued by the United States and Ukraine in this time frame reflect what International Relations scholars term “realismâ€. In sum, all of the realism criteria are met in the case of US-Ukraine Relations. This leads us to conclude that as states, the US and Ukraine will continue to act in a rational self-interested manner, for their own self-preservation, without regard to the expressions of international organizations.