Weaponizing Europe, Countering Eurasia: Mackinder, Brzezinski, Nuland and the Road to the Ukraine War

ABSTRACT

The Ukraine war is a proxy conflict whereby the US hopes to destroy Russia as a challenge to its hegemony. Although the kinetic war has, so far, been confined to Ukraine, Europe is also a key instrument in the American arsenal. However, Europe is also an objective of the war because it forms the western end of Eurasia. This great landmass, principally comprising China, Russia, and Europe, not merely challenges US political and military power, but is a counterbalance to the US-dominated maritime global economy. This essay traces these geostrategic concerns from Mackinder to the present day, within the evolving geopolitical context. Europe is both a weapon of war and a victim, with de-industrialization, immiseration and social turmoil looming. This presents US strategy with problems since the mix of advantages and disadvantages is uncertain and the ramifications unpredictable.

KEYWORDS:

• The Ukraine war
• Europe
• the United States
• weaponization
• US global strategy

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the insightful comments of two anonymous reviewers. My heartfelt thanks also are due to Zhen Wang, academic editor of International Critical Thought, for her unstinting patience and assistance in getting my articles through the publishing process.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See https://www.foreignaffairs.com/lists/building-postwar-world.

2 This article was published under the pseudonym “X.”

3 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulbright_Program.

4 See Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Military Expenditure Database. https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tim Beal

Tim Beal is a retired New Zealand academic who has researched and written widely on Asia and in particular its interaction with the West. He has a special focus on US imperialism and the Korean peninsula within the context of policy towards East Asia. His most recent publications include “Korea and Imperialism” in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-imperialism (edited by Immanuel Ness and Zak Cope, 2019, Palgrave Macmillan), and “The Angler and the Octopus” in Monthly Review, November 2019, “Imperialism’s Handmaidens: Cultural Hegemony and Information Warfare” in International Critical Thought, 2022. He maintains the Asian Geopolitics website at http://www.timbeal.net.nz/geopolitics/.