The Clash of Geopolitical Cultures: The Ontological Security Dilemma Between the United States and Russia

The existing literature focus primarily on the role of Vladimir Putin or expansionist Western policies to explain deteriorating U.S.-Russia relations and the present Ukraine crisis. To give a different perspective on the current problems between Washington and Moscow, this article will analyze the interactions of two geopolitical cultures, namely American Exceptionalism and Russian Eurasianism, and how this interaction creates an ontological security dilemma exacerbated by offense-defense ambiguity, information failures and a commitment problem in the ideological domain. The article will also show that both Exceptionalism and Eurasianism are not monolithic geopolitical cultures as Exceptionalism can be divided between exemplary and missionary forms while Classical Eurasianism has some liberal characteristics that the contemporary Neo-Eurasianism lacks. Therefore, the conflict-prone effects of the ontological security dilemma can be diminished by the adoption of the alternative forms of these geopolitical cultures. Nevertheless, this solution is easier said than done because of the strength of traditional foreign policy habits in the United States and the domestic power struggle in Russia.