Authors

Damian Strycharz¹;  ¹ Krakow University of Economics, Poland

Discussion

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine on a full scale. Why President Putin decided to make such a risky move, which may lead to the collapse of his, so far stable, regime? There are numerous explanations that point to various important factors, but shortage of approaches which try to combine these different factors together and explain the relationships between them. Indeed, the nexus of changing external environment and internal circumstances is not clear from the existing studies of Russia’s foreign policy. Likewise, the relationship between ideational factors and changes in foreign policy-making processes is also understudied. To address these gaps, the article applies a multi-level theoretical framework based on role theory, which allows the combination of various factors in the analysis and incorporation of domestic and external expectations and their interactions. Consequently, the paper focuses not only on international and domestic levels, but primarily on decision-making processes, where various factors come together. The article also looks at key decisions during the war (e.g. the September 2022 draft) to identify potential shifts in the most important factors and decision-making processes during this crucial period.