Nuclear disarmament as a catalyst for Ukrainian-American relations

In: Political Studies, Heft 2, S. 119-139

Abstract

The article analyzes the process of building relations between Ukraine and the USA in the first years of Ukrainian independence, trends in their development, agenda and contradictions. It is determined that the development of bilateral relations in the first half of the 1990s was marked by the sporadic political dialogue of the countries, the multidirectionality of interests and asymmetry of relations, and their agenda was limited to three main areas – political dialogue, nuclear disarmament and economic assistance. Both the administration of D. Bush Sr. and the administration of B. Clinton in the first years in office followed a Moscow-centric policy in the post-Soviet space, which left little room for Ukrainian diplomacy. The need to develop contacts with official Kyiv during this period for Washington was dictated solely by its interest in solving the nuclear issue. In turn, for the young Ukrainian state, both in the times of Leonid Kravchuk and after the second President Leonid Kuchma came to power, the American direction became one of the main foreign policy priorities. The complex process of solving the problem of nuclear disarmament of Ukraine, which became the central topic of Ukrainian-American relations in 1991–1994, is covered in detail. At the same time the approaches of the Republican and Democratic administrations to solving this problem were different. The position of the Bush administration in this matter was reduced to tough pressure and ultimatum rhetoric in order to achieve Kyiv's renunciation of nuclear weapons, which eventually led to its failure and lack of progress in the negotiations. The administration of Democrat B. Clinton, which came to power in the United States in 1993, rethought the policy towards Ukraine, offering more flexible approaches to the dialogue with Kyiv – expanded the bilateral agenda, expressed readiness to increase economic aid and discuss the provision of security guarantees. Official Kyiv in the negotiations on nuclear disarmament, despite the discussions in the Ukrainian politics, chose a bargaining strategy, seeking to extract as many economic and political dividends as possible from the United States. The interaction of flexible approaches of the USA to the nuclear issue and Ukrainian bargaining strategy resulted in the signing of the Budapest Memorandum on December 5, 1994.