A PARADIGMIC SHIFT – FROM FAR-FETCHED LABELLING TO DOWN-TO EARTH REASONING

Even before Russia’s invasion in Ukraine approx. eight months ago, there has been some conventional wisdom that the war can be explained through the prism of the first debate in IR theory, i.e. Realism vs. Idealism. As far as Kremlin’s transgressions of Kyiv’s sovereignty have been the stepping stones of an escalating crisis since the Crimea’s annexation in 2014, it is taken for granted that the explanatory potential of the first debate remains valid. This paper, however, argues that the dynamics of the warfare peels off the superficial layer of explanation and bares the deeply rooted behavioral drivers and structural factors.