Summer School <Contemporary Europe 2023> Session 4 > Summer School at KU

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Professor Jae-Seung Lee was in charge of the fourth session of the summer course. Geopolitics was the main topic of the lecture, where he discussed about the new European security map. The NATO underwent the expansion decades later since its last eastern expansion. Finland and Sweden, which used to maintain the neutral stance applied to NATO membership. Although Sweden’s application was rejected due to Turkish’s disproval, the security situation in Europe had changed. Ukraine and Russia’s conflict is at the core of this changing geopolitics. Putin’s Russia had been showing its neo-imperialistic ambition not just for the geopolitical benefit the land brings, but also due to Ukraine’s historical importance. Putin had been justifying the aggression by borrowing the excuses from history and past treaties. The war is escalating as Ukraine is supported by Western side, such as weapon and financial support. But collective security of NATO does not stretch to Ukraine, since it is not a member and there is scarce possibility that the organization will accept the nation right at the moment.

The future of the war will leave a lot of problems to be solved. Casualties and refugees forced Ukrainians to move out from its homeland, where Poland now took in most of the refugees. Current president, Zelenskyy has been shown great leadership for now, but the politics of Ukraine had long suffered corruption and elites’ collusion to Russia. While aid is coming from all over the world including the US or Japan, Europe had imposed the sanctions in Russia. The allies from west and East, including Korea had participated in sanction, but the world is not solely united in the issue that could hurt their own economy and weaken its political standing. There is also the problem of Russia’s greatest asset and weapon, energy. The end of neutrality in Europe and rapidly changing alliances shows that security is a global problem, and Korea also need to respond in this chaotic situation.