Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in four interrelated security crises. The war in Ukraine is a tragedy for human security, but it affects geopolitical security as well as food and energy security.
These four crises have been compounded by the failure of coercive diplomacy. This is a form of diplomacy which uses either sticks or carrots to encourage “an adversary” – in this case Russia – to change its behaviour.
Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the EU and US have sought to coerce Putin to row back on his aggression against Ukraine by imposing sanctions, but to no avail. Now, eight years on, Putin’s war against Ukraine reflects the failure of this coercive diplomacy.
