Plea for a Relationalist Operationalization of the Realist Structure

The polarized realist debate over the causes of the Russia-Ukraine war and Moscow’s foreign security policy towards its periphery in general exposes the shortcomings of the Waltzian international structure. They include the analytical imprecision inherent to the appraisal of the distribution of capabilities and the capacity to comprehend only a limited number of macro-behaviors. These shortcomings have incited certain scholars to return to classical realism or to introduce unit-level factors within neoclassical realist constructs. Although these endeavors have merits, they distract scholarly attention from questioning our comprehension of the structure. To refine the systemic approach, I argue for a relationalist operationalization of the structure that mobilizes the literature on international hierarchies. Relationalism, as an analytical orientation, directs the inquiry into the transactions and practices that typify relationships between countries. The literature on international hierarchies, for its part, is suitable to comprehend relations of domination and subordination and helps formulate working hypotheses. These hypotheses, tested on the Russia-Ukraine relationship from the mid-2000s to the 2022 conflict, posit that a superordinate asserts influence on a subordinate through the provision of system services, like economic support and security commitments. The failure to satisfy the subordinate’s expectations leads the latter to undertake a rapprochement with extra-regional actors, a move that invites increasingly coercive measures by the superordinate to retain the subordinate under its yoke. The relationalist operationalization helps explore the means used by Moscow to assert influence on Kyiv and sheds a new light on the Russia-Ukraine case. It highlights Russia’s inability to act as a legitimate superordinate and depicts the 2022 invasion as a sign of weakness. It also emphasizes Ukraine’s agency. Western countries’ eastward expansion is reflective of the westward movements of Eastern European countries attracted by better system services. Therefore, Western countries should not be blamed for their eastward expansion but for having failed to deter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.