Tom Switzer. Questions or Objections. Australian Broadcasting Company, Radio National, Between the Lines. 05 Feb 2015.

1.       Switzer: A specter once again haunts Europe, the specter of a new Cold War. Relations between Russia and the West have dramatically soured since Ukraine’s Janokowitcsch’s Government fell a year ago, and Moscow jumped in to seise part of Ukraine. Just this week, the Obama Administration threatened to send in defensive Weapons to bolster Ukrainian Forces. Washington and Brussels are extending Sanctions against Moscow. And meanwhile, in Russia, anti-Americanism has reached new highs while Putin has never been more popular. What’s behind this crisis, and how will it play out? Now I’ve argued we need to understand what caused this Crisis to have any Hope of trying to solve it, but let’s hear now from two distinguished voices in this filed. John Mearsheimer is []. Timothy Snyder is []. Unfortunately, icy conditions in Connecticut mean Tim is joining us on a slightly scratchy line, but let’s start this Discussion with what’s led to this Crisis in Ukraine.

  John Mearsheimer, you argue that NATO and EU Expansion upset Russia’s strategic sensitivities and that the West has failed to understand how such policies would provoke Russia, but in Venice, didn’t the Nations in this Region, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the Baltics, weren’t they clamouring for this NATO Expansion?