Governance, Intervention, and Ukraine

Letter to the Editor by Ernie Regehr, The Simons Foundation's Senior Fellow in Arctic Security
Published by the Globe and Mail 
April 21, 2014

"It’s instructive to read two of The Globe’s April 18 columns together. Brian Lee Crowley (“Canada’s real wealth: It’s not gold, it’s good governance”) observes that prosperity is ultimately rooted in a rules-based order with trusted public institutions, a truth that applies equally to security. Jeffrey Simpson (“Czar Vladimir is changing the rules of the game”) reminds us that the states most vulnerable to resurgent Russian chauvinism are riven by ethnicities not protected by the rule of law and trusted institutions of governance.

In every case of post-Cold War cross-border military intervention – the United States being by far the most prolific, but Russia, NATO, France, South Africa, and others having taken their turns – the target country, like Ukraine, was already enmeshed in intractable conflict, suffering a deep crisis of legitimacy. The point is not to excuse military interventions, or to blame the victims, but to recognize that stable, well-governed countries are rarely invaded these days.

Since 1989 there is really only one partial exception, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait – and even there, to say that pre-invasion Kuwait was well governed is a stretch. In all other interventions the target state was in unambiguous crisis – consider Georgia ahead of Russia’s 2008 intervention; Bosnia (1990s), Serbia (1999), Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), and Libya (2011) ahead of US- and NATO-led interventions; Somalia ahead of the arrival of US (1992), Ethiopian (2006), and Kenyan (2011) troops; Lesotho ahead of South African intervention (1998); Mali ahead of France’s (2013) intervention; or South Sudan ahead of Ugandan troop deployments there (2013).

Protection from the Putins of this world, and they are not confined to Russia, has zero to do with sending six CF-18 fighters to Eastern Europe, but everything to do with promoting and supporting responsible and accountable governance.

Ernie Regehr
Waterloo, Ontario"

Ernie Regehr, O.C. is Senior Fellow in Arctic Security at The Simons Foundation, and Research Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo.