Ukrainian Perspectives on National Security and Ukrainian Military Doctrine

When, in 1991, Ukraine entered the world forum of independent states, it also embarked on the uncharted waters of international diplomacy. While elites of established nations were suddenly confronted by the end of the Cold War and the emergence of a more chaotic world, Ukraine had to cope with all of that while trying to define itself, its interests, and its capabilities. What is more than that, Ukrainian statesmen, who possessed no expertise in international diplomacy or in building a nation as well as a state with all the necessary institutions, quickly had to come up with threat assessments and notions of national security that would help secure their new state’s independence. All this had to be done in embryonic governmental structures whose personnel had no experience in what they were doing and no idea how to work together.