The immature buffer: how Ukraine got caught in an East–West divide—and amplified it.
This article examines why Ukraine's struggle between 1990 and 2014 to act as a buffer state between East and West collapsed and what this reveals about the conditions under which buffering can succeed or fail. It argues that Ukraine's post-independence trajectory is a case of an immature buffer stat...
| Published in: | International Affairs Vol. 102; no. 4; pp. 1317 - 1335 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Jul2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195222509&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195222509 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00205850 INA jtl: International Affairs issn: 00205850 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2026 vid: 102 iid: 4 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 195222509 10.1093/ia/iiag055 ppf: 1317 ppct: 18 formats: tig: atl: The immature buffer: how Ukraine got caught in an East–West divide—and amplified it. aug: au: Johansen, Anne Ingemann affil: University of Southern Denmark su: Ukraine Geopolitics Political development International relations Diplomacy Ukrainian history Western countries sug: subj: Geopolitics Political development International relations Diplomacy Ukraine Foreign affairs International Affairs Ukrainian history Western countries keyword: buffer states copyrightHolder:The Royal Institute of International Affairs copyrightYear:2026 European security inLanguage:en NATO publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiag055 buffer states copyrightHolder:The Royal Institute of International Affairs copyrightYear:2026 European security inLanguage:en NATO publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiag055 ab: This article examines why Ukraine's struggle between 1990 and 2014 to act as a buffer state between East and West collapsed and what this reveals about the conditions under which buffering can succeed or fail. It argues that Ukraine's post-independence trajectory is a case of an immature buffer state: one that recognized the need to balance between powerful neighbours but was unable to institutionalize that practice. Building on the buffer state literature, the article introduces the concept of buffering as a strategic practice—the process through which political leadership, diplomacy and institutions must be aligned to translate structural vulnerability into strategic agency. Applying this framework to Ukraine, the analysis traces how such alignment was never achieved. Although there were moments of opportunity, buffering remained weakly institutionalized and vulnerable to reversal, leaving the country exposed to mounting external pressure. The article concludes that Ukraine's failure in buffering was neither inevitable nor solely caused from without. Instead, it was the result of the interaction between an inhospitable external environment and domestic institutional fragility. This highlights why buffering, when pursued without durable institutional anchoring, is unlikely to mature into a sustainable strategy. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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