As much as it would have made sense to make my "useful idiot" series a trilogy with today's post, it's probably wiser that lowly grad students don't go around referring to prominent scholars in the field with such terms.
Nonetheless, today's subject was quite a headscratcher for me (it's also worth noting that I'm late to discovering this video). It's one thing for an iconoclastic politician to end up in biased Russian media, but quite another for one of the most prominent American scholars of international relations to lend their voice to Kremlin propaganda. For those who don't want to sit through over 27 minutes of video, here's what you need to know: Mearsheimer is parroting the "Russia is only responding to Western encirclement" narrative often pushed by Moscow. Objectively, we need to look at this through two perspectives. If we're looking at things through more of a theoretical perspective, Mearsheimer is absolutely right: based on Russia's perspective of how it ought to be viewed in its own neighborhood, it wasn't so happy about the growth of NATO to its own borders. As such, we shouldn't be surprised that Russia has taken actions to combat what it sees as threats to its "near-abroad."
If we're looking at this through the perspective of how things ought to be conducted in the real world (God-forbid!), Mearsheimer saying what he said in this forum is actually rather dangerous. By using theoretical constructs about national interest and great-power politics as a manual for policy, Mearsheimer is essentially acquiescing to the misguided Russian mindset that Eastern Europe "belongs" to the Russian sphere of influence. Now, what Mearsheimer is saying is certainly in line with his less-than-sanguine views on the prospect of post-Cold War stability in Europe: if these views stay within the realm of academia, then they actually retain their merit. Mearsheimer also didn't earn his position by not contributing in a significant manner to the field of international relations. As such, it is incredibly troubling for an individual who actually has the expertise to intelligently comment on the question of, "Why is this crisis happening?" with the answer, "Because the US won't let Russia do as it wishes in Eastern Europe. Which, let's be honest, is not want countries like Poland and Estonia are the least bit okay with." If an American who "knows what he's talking about" is effectively giving credence to Russia's position, then who is left to decry the absurdity of it?
