Great Powers and the Deterioration of Global Peace

Looking at the global rules for maintaining world peace, everyone believed that the years after 1989 would be characterized by peace and diversification of trade relations between sovereign countries, since the Cold War, justified by ideological commands, was already considered history. These hopes were also justified by the fact that the USA promised: "NATO will not expand eastward by even an inch", which strengthened the undeniable faith of the peoples in a new era of peace. After the USSR imploded, the Russian Federation and the other countries that were part of the former socialist camp tried to cultivate friendship with Western countries, especially with the USA, considered the future bearer of the banner of peace and development worldwide. However, around 1994, the USA and other Western countries began to reevaluate their relations with the new sovereign states that emerged from the former socialist space, and the Russian Federation began to be considered a second-rate country, whose economic and military power became comparable to that of Italy or Spain. As such, in the new context of power relations, the Russian Federation found itself excluded from discussing global issues of humanity and became aware, shockingly, of the decisions supported in some Western chancelleries, to launch the process of NATO's eastward expansion, in response to the express request of some states that had broken away from Soviet influence and were interested in finding new forms of implementing security guarantees. Shortly after, the new political leadership of the Russian Federation analyzed the new realities of the power poles and accepted the process of NATO's eastward expansion, but as an expansion conditioned by its tacit agreement. The Russian Federation became interested in its own security, since it was obvious that any military defense system could immediately turn into an offensive and conquest one. When in 2008 NATO was considering extending membership invitations to Ukraine and Georgia, the Russian president publicly declared that he considered this move to be unfriendly and to endanger the existential security of the Russian Federation. From that moment on, the two great powers, although they talked about peace, both sides conceived it in different ways: the USA supported the consolidation of peace by expanding NATO to the east, and the Russian Federation believed that peace was possible only by stopping the process of NATO enlargement. Given that the Security Council and the UN had become bodies ignored by the great powers of the world, states began to consider that dark clouds were gathering over the sky of peace. In 2008, American advisors suggested that Georgia forcibly extend its state authority over some secessionist regions, but the energetic intervention of Russia prevented the plan from being realized, which brought obvious criticism from the USA. Between 2008 and 2022, the US and the Russian Federation faced each other by proxy, on Ukrainian soil, with the US supporting pro-Western movements and the Russian Federation mobilizing Russophile populations to its side. As Ukrainian political forces became more attached to Western values, the Russian Federation managed to detach from Ukraine, first Crimea, then, in 2022, the regions of eastern Ukraine, which requested to be placed under Russian military protection, triggering what Putin called a "special military operation" while the Western world considered that this could only be a worrying "war of aggression". Beyond these labels, world public opinion found that world peace could only be seriously disturbed by irresponsible actions taken by the great powers. After almost four years of terrible war, the great powers, namely the USA and the Russian Federation, initiated peace talks, established a general framework for it, without consulting with the countries that supported the military war efforts, namely the EU countries.