A century of quarrel: The violation of one of democracies most sacred traditions

Introduction

For the past century the global political arena has been an environment of not only ceaseless change and conflict but secreted agendas as well as motives. On January 20th 2017 Donald Trump became the 45th President of the global super-power and industrial hegemony known as the United States, however what does this recent development mean for the citizens of America and populace of the international community due to the fact that not only is the United States one of the most powerful nations in the world today but this nation holds a permanent position in the United Nations. It is as a result of this actuality that in this essay I will be arguing the case of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election in addition to a symposium with regard to the theoretical perspectives of this crisis. I will then conclude this argument with my own opinion with regard to this quandary.

Russia’s involvement in the 2016 elections

Although the ballot for presidency within the United states occurred almost a year ago, to this day there still remains a great deal of conspiracy and conjecture behind the legitimacy of the tactics Donald Trump used to secure presidency. This is as a result of the fact that the Central Intelligence Agency was able to conduct a secret assessment which ultimately provided verification behind Russia’s involvement in the 2016 elections. Consequently this veracity forces us to argue, why would Russia intervene in American elections when these two states have a history of not only variance and pandemonium but a century long conflict spurred by state politics? Nevertheless astute agencies have identified a number of individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided ‘Wikileaks’ accompanied by thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee and others including Hilary Clintons campaign chairman Robert E. Mook (Entous, Nakashima and Miller, 2017p.2).

Did Russia hack the elections

After the election the Central Intelligence Agency concluded that Russia had released the emails with the primary goal of bolstering Donald J Trump’s presidential campaign. This veracity does however beg the question was the election itself hacked? There is on the other hand no concrete proof that the hackers from Russia tampered with vote tallies (Entous, Nakashima and Miller, 2017). Donald trump did conversely disclose in an interview that there was widespread fraud which favoured Hillary Clinton, in addition to some liberal commentators that suggest the election was hacked. Autonomous analysts do however agree that there is overwhelming evidence against both claims. Moreover this development forces us to ask the question, did Russia swing the election for Donald Trump? It is however unfeasible to determine if these allegations are accurate as a result of the fact that the emails unfolded over weeks at a time (Fisher, 2017p.3). Donald Trump did on the other hand win three crucial mid western states by a very small margin subsequently even if the leaks swung only a small percentage of votes could have been enough to change the outcome (Entous, Nakashima and Miller, 2017).

Within the latest CIA assessment key senators divulged information in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill last week, which concluded from an assessment of multiple sources that electing Trump was indeed the goal of the alleged Russian hack (Fisher, 2017). As a result of this fact the White House said President Obama ordered a full re-examination of the Russian hack during the election campaign due to the fact that pressure from the legislative body has developed to a greater understanding with regard to what Moscow actually did in order to influence the electoral process (Plato.stanford.edu, 2017). Throughout the course of Donald J Trumps election campaign he repeatedly made promises to realign the United States with Russia in addition to the fact that on multiple occasion Mr Trump has offered both praise and recognition to Vladimir Puttin (Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution, 2017).Controversially many citizens of the Russian populace do however view Hillary Clinton as being hostile force towards the former “Soviets” ,as a result of the comments she made regarding legitimacy of Vladimir Puttin tactics during Russia’s preliminary elections (Fisher, 2017p.4).This actuality does however raise the argument, was this ultimately the reason behind Russia’s support of Donald Trump? (Plato.stanford.edu, 2017)

Conflict between Hillary Clinton and Vladimr Puttin

Once mass protests by the general public of Russia erupted on December 2011 in Moscow Vladimir Putin made it clear who thought was really behind them, Secretary Hillary Clinton (Crowlley, Geller and Dovere, 2017, p.2).When the protestors accused Putin of having rigged the recent elections within the Maoist state, the Russian president pointed an angry finger at Clinton, who issued a short statement brusquely critical of voting results, stating they were both “dishonest and unfair”. (Crowley, Geller and Dovere, 2017.p3)In a public announcement Putin fumed stating that Clinton through her actions gave a signal to demonstrators working with the support of the U.S State Department to undermine his power. However almost five years later could Vladimir Putin is seeking reprisal against Hillary Clinton? At least that’s the allegation by several cyber security experts that implicate Russia in the hack on the National Democratic Committee email server (Crowly, Geller and Dovere, 2017p.2).

Former US officials who worked on Russia’s policy with Clinton do however claim Putin was personally incensed by Mrs Clintons December 2011 denunciation with regard to Russia’s parliamentary elections. The notion of Payback remains only speculation with regard to the Clinton campaign, nonetheless the former secretary of state has since embraced this conjecture accompanied by operation manager Robby Mook, who both seem to endorse the concept of Russian involvement (Entous, Nakashima and Miller, 2017).Although Clinton has never hidden her distain for Putin ‘Clintonites’ realize that few American citizens pay close attention to the state of U.S-Russian relations, there are nonetheless two essential admonitions with regard to Americas Populace(Crowley, Geller and Dovere, 2017).One is the presence of a great population of Polish, Ukrainians and other eastern European ethnic cultures in ‘Rust Belt’ states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin where Clinton has since been able to flag stories with regard to Trump and Putin’s ‘bromance’(Mosely, 2017,p.3).

Post-election period

According to Crowley,Geller and Dovere the Post election period was a setting dominated by conflicting claims on weather Donald Trump did indeed make use of Russian aid to win the election(2017,p.3). As a result of this causality beset by allegations of hidden ties between his campaign and Russia, Trump has since shown no inclination to revisit the matter and has denied any collusion or obstruction on his part with regard to the internal integrity of the United States most sacred policies. Furthermore as a result of this veracity the expulsions in addition to modest sanctions announced by Barack Obama on December 29th are regarded as the United States most vigorous response. “The Punishment does not fit the crime”, Micheal Mcfaul the U.S medium between the Obama administration and Russia from 2012–2014 stated in a conference , “Russia has violated not only our sovereignty by meddling in one of our most sacred acts as a democracy but undermined America as a force of influence within the international community ’’ (Plato.stanford.edu, 2017).This account from the Obama administration was however based on interviews from more than three dozen current and future American officials in senior government positions from the likes of ,the White House, the State, Defence and Homeland Security department in addition to U.S intelligence services(Plato.stanford.edu, 2017).

What is ‘Realism’

It is however as consequence of this veracity that I believe this predicament is best represented by the Realist theoretical perspective (Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution, 2017, p.1). Political realism is however a theory of political philosophy that attempts to not only explain, model but prescribe political relations (Mosely, 2017, p.2). This theory places emphasis on the fact that politicians ultimate goal should be to maximize their own power whilst in the international arena. Within the discipline of international relations there are several contending general theories or theoretical perspectives. Realism also known as political realism is however a view of international politics that stresses the competitive and belligerent side of states within the international arena. Realists consider the principal actors within the international arena to be states, which are concerned with their own security and act in pursuit of their own national interests as well as the struggle for power (Mosely, 2017). Realists within international relations emphasize the constraints imposed upon politics by the nature of human beings, who they consider to be egocentric (Mosely, 2017, p.3). Realists especially neo-realists do however consider the absence of government, literally anarchy to be the primary determent with regard to outcomes in the international arena (Fisher, 2017, p.2).

Outcomes of an Alliance

Although Russian efforts to influence the presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow’s enduring desire to undermine the American led liberal democratic order, through an escalation in directness, activity level in addition to the scope of effort in comparison to previous operation (Fisher, 2017, p.2). One must however ask themselves is this desire by the people of Moscow as a result of the conflict which occurred during the ‘Cold War’ or as result of the fact that the support of Donald Trump will ultimately result in a stronger alliance between Russia and America which is ultimately the goal of every state in accordance to the realist perspective (Danvers, 2017, p.2). The U.S since these allegations were made has been reluctant to retaliate due to fear triggering an all-out global cyber conflict (Danvers, 2017, p.1).

During the Cold War, the United States policy went from containment to a détente followed by a confrontation. In today’s golden age the vicissitudes of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s engagement with the United States varies from productive to confrontational (Danvers, 2017, p.2). This can be noted through an observation of Iran nuclear crises. Putin wants Russia to not only have a seat in the United Nations where decisions on global international issues are made but the seat once held by the former Soviet Union. In other words Vladimir Puttin wants to return to the great Power politics of the Cold War with regard to gratis hand territory that is a part of the Soviet Union(Danvers, 2017,p.2).Russia nevertheless requires the United States as an adversary, though not necessarily as an foe. This sort of dynamic allows Putin to not only maintain political support with regard to Russia’s internal milieu but protect the state from external threats this strategy additionally enables Russia to fix an economy that is uncertain, this development will additionally enable Russia to make new alliances (Danvers, 2017.p.2).

Conclusion

Hence fourth in Conclusion even though the international community has been an arena of not only constant change and ceaseless conflict this development ultimately has a variety of not only unpredictable outcomes for not only the people of Russia and America but the populace of the entire planet. Did Russia breach the integrity of one of America’s most sacred processes as a means to get payback upon the former Secretary Hillary Clinton, or where the elections breached as a result of the economic enhancement a genuine unification between these two states would bring? This development could ultimately have unprecedented results for the populace of Russia or could result in the ignition of a new Cold War, built upon the foundations of not only secret agendas but conspiracy. Russia’s intervention within the elections has however ultimately changed the context of the relationship between two states that have a history of invoking a battle that could have in the end resulted in the destruction of the entire planet .Will Russia be able to reclaim their position in the United Nations or will Moscow reap the repercussions of their actions, these are all answers that will be answered almost immediately. It is however my belief that this circumstance is best described through the Realist theoretical perspective.

References

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Fisher, M. (2017). Russia and the U.S. Election: What We Know and Don’t Know. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/world/europe/russia-trump-election-cia-fbi.html?mcubz=0 [Accessed 6 Sep. 2017].

CROWLEY, M., GELLER, E. and Dovere, E. (2017). Why Putin hates Hillary. [online] POLITICO. Available at: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/clinton-putin-226153 [Accessed 6 Sep. 2017].

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Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution. (2017). Intelligence community assesment, 1(1), pp.4–12.

Plato.stanford.edu. (2017). Political Realism in International Relations (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). [online] Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/realism-intl-relations/ [Accessed 10 Sep. 2017].

Danvers, W. (2017). U.S. and Russia Relations Under Trump and Putin — Center for American Progress. [online] Center for American Progress. Available at: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2016/12/14/295001/u-s-and-russia-relations-under-trump-and-putin/ [Accessed 10 Sep. 2017].