U.S. may see world politics as game of great powers – expert

That’s according to James Siebens, a research fellow at Stimson Center, who spoke at an event organized by the European Policy Centre in Brussels via videolink, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The U.S. administration’s foreign policies seem to represent a return to an “antiquated view of world politics as a great game between great powers”, the expert suggests.

“The idea of territorial enlargement has been the historic tendency and ambition of great powers. And perhaps President Trump views the United States’ place of predominance in global security affairs as giving it the ability, and therefore the right to, hold the strategic positions that it wants to hold,” he went on to say.

Siebens recalled the situation in Venezuela that he believes was in part intended to change the government directly and in part to displace the influence of foreign powers in “America's backyard”.

The same logic, the expert notes, could be applied to Greenland.

“While the United States is an ally with Denmark, it doesn't have a sort of need perhaps to acquire Greenland from a military standpoint as it has military cooperation with Greenland already. But there may be an ambition to achieve territory and enlargement the same way that other leaders have territorial ambitions. That would be a tremendous achievement for the history books,” said the expert.

At the same time, the pundit believes Russia has been losing influence over Venezuela, Syria, as well as Armenia “as a result of its own actions and as a result of U.S actions – sometimes military and sometimes diplomatic”.

Meanwhile, the expert suggested to look at Russia's ambitions and aggression towards Ukraine as a part of a negotiating process with the United States over NATO influence.

He recalled that the decision of Sweden and Finland to become part of the NATO alliance is a strategic loss for Russia.

“Yet, Russia remains willing to sustain this war effort at great cost for purposes of ensuring that NATO forces will not be present inside Ukrainian territory,” the expert suggests.

Speaking of Europe’s role in settlement, Siebens believes a greater effort on the part of Europeans to build their own military capacity would give Europe more influence over the negotiations and a greater contribution to deterrence if negotiations are successful.

As reported by Ukrinform, Ukraine’s representative to the European Union, Vsevolod Chentsov, believes that Ukraine, alongside countries such as the UK and Norway, should be included in a future European Defense Union if such an initiative is implemented. Currently, Ukraine already plays an important role in defending the continent.