Alliance trajectories of the Czech Republic, Latvia, Ukraine and Belarus: A neoclassical realist analysis

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2015

Öğrenci: BURCU YAVUZ

Danışman: OKTAY FIRAT TANRISEVER

Özet:

Drawing on the observation that post-communist states in Central and Eastern Europe, having been Warsaw Pact members during the Cold War, made different alliance decisions in the post-Cold War period, this dissertation scrutinizes the reasons for the diversity in the alliance trajectories of post-communist states. The analysis is structured on the cases of the Czech Republic, Latvia, Ukraine and Belarus, which have differed among themselves in terms of their alliance decisions. This study first addresses these countries’ alliance decisions with a country-focused analysis and then compares the findings from these cases with a comparative analysis in order to find out the reasons for the diversity in the alliance trajectories in the post-communist space. Written from a neoclassical realist perspective, this dissertation argues that post-communist states’ alliance decisions cannot be fully comprehended by focusing exclusively on external dynamics. As such, it explains the alliance decisions of post-communist states with reference to the interaction of external dynamics with their domestic political peculiarities, and views the regional variation in the alliance trajectories as an outcome of the diversity in external and internal contexts of each post-communist state.