Universalism: How It Affects States' Behavior, and How It Drove the US Into a New Cold War With Russia
Open AccessThis project proposes a Theory of State Behavior Determined by Particularistic or Universalistic Identity-Morality-Ideology (IMI). Particularistic IMIs are those that do not extend far beyond the borders of the adherent-state, while universalistic IMIs are those that do. Particularistic ideologies compel the pursuit of only specific, limited objectives that extend little beyond a state's vital interests. Thus, particularists are free to pursue those limited ends by whatever means appear most likely to secure them, and their foreign policies may approximate realpolitik. But universalistic ideologies — such as the US's Cosmopolitan-Liberalism — extend a state's objectives far beyond its vital state interests, impose deontological imperatives upon virtually everything, virulently interact with various psychological phenomena, and otherwise ensure that a universalistic state will be incapable of realpolitik. This will lead to universalists' impingement upon the vital interests of other states, especially independent great powers, with little to no realpolitik purpose. This, in turn, will prompt balancing on the part of other states, and ultimately leave universalists in draining conflicts with them.Working mainly with official documents and statements of the US itself, I find strong support for the PUIMI Theory in the post-Cold-War behavior of the US vis-a-vis Russia. Even when the US's attitudes towards Russia were relatively neutral in the early 1990s, universalism drove it to pursue the expansion of NATO to the Baltics, Ukraine, and Georgia, severely impinging upon Russian interests. Then, events in 1998-1999 interacted with the US's universalism to drastically worsen its attitude towards Russia. This moral-ideological condemnation of Russia, in turn, drove the US to (inter alia) support Chechen separatists, subvert the Russian government, and sabotage Russia's trade with the rest of Europe. Crucially, these actions' timing, consequences, and decisionmaking processes are largely incompatible with alternative explanations of US behavior.The PUIMI Theory and these various findings align with Defensive Realism, as well as with Constructivism and identity-, ideology-, and psychology-focused approaches to international relations. They also have major implications for our understanding of US-Russia relations since the (First) Cold War, and for our expectations regarding the behavior of the US and other universalistic states.
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