Ukraine and the Impact on Global Politics.

I've wanted to post about this for a few weeks, especially since the crisis in Ukraine started.  Its a very complicated situation with a number of factors at play.  There are lot of angles to analyze and I think the media has done a good job on most of them.

But there is one that goes untouched - American Credibility.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet Empire, many of the former Soviet republics had access to nuclear weapons or other weapons of destruction.   And Ukraine was one such country.

In an effort to develop a relationship with a newly reshaped world, Ukraine engaged the Russian Federation, the US and Great Britain to develop an agreement where they would denuclearize in exchange for security guarantees.

Ukraine, Russia, the US and Great Britain signed an agreement in 1994 that would denuclearize Ukraine in exchange for the following:

1. Respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignty within its existing borders.
2. Refrain from the threat or use of force against Ukraine.
   (Source: Summery Provided by Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances)

This is important because the West could offer a similar agreement to more rogue states like Iran or North Korea.  But they won't accept if they know we won't enforce it.  In order to sign agreements with other nations, we need to have the credibility.  They need to believe us.

That's why the Ukraine crisis is really important. When we give territorial guarantees to countries who are willing to give up their weapons of mass destruction, we need to be positioned to enforce it.

When we give our word, it has to mean something.

Resolving the Ukraine crisis, will strengthen the West's geopolitical position and credibility on the world stage.