AMERICA’S GRAND STRATEGY IN THE MAKING: IMPACT ON THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

Abstract

This article explores changes in US grand strategy triggered by systemic transforma- tions of international politics. On the one hand, global balance of power has shifted in recent years brining about changes in structure of international system. On the other hand, the current world order is eroding. Once built around Western institutions, regimes, and norms, it is facing growing revisionism, while the West seems no longer able to sustain it.Together these processes create a completely different strategic environment for international actors and, in particular, for the US. According to neorealism and other structural theories, a success of a state in its foreign and security policy is determined by its ability to correctly assess systemic parameters of international politics. Thus, understanding those parameters is not only of academic, but also political importance. The current American administration suggests a specific stra- tegic response to a changing international environment, focused on countering China, cutting US external commitments and ‘making America great again’. Such a strategy needs to be examined closely, since it is going to have an impact on the whole structure of international security. Besides, it will have a direct impact on the Russian-Ukrainian war, which, in many ways, is an important point of reference in remaking the world order.Thus, three questions emerge. The first is about global transformations in the interna- tional system which help understand why the US grand strategy is changing. The second is about how exactly it is changing and which new elements in American approach to international politics can be identified. And the third one is about how these changes are impacting the Russian-Ukrainian war. These questions are addressed here by utilizing hegemonic stability theory to assess the decline of hegemony and its effects; applying power transitions theory to current international political and security developments; and relying on a more general neorealist approach in assessing foreign policy and secu- rity options of states.