John Mearsheimer’s geopolitical worldview leaves little room for the reality of Russian imperialism
by Dietmar Pichler
John Mearsheimer (*1947) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, best known for his theory of offensive realism—which holds that great powers pursue regional hegemony to ensure their survival in an anarchic international system.
According to Mearsheimer’s 2014 article “Why the Ukraine crisis is the West’s fault: The liberal delusions that provoked Putin”, he rejects the “prevailing wisdom” that blames the Ukraine crisis on Putin’s supposed ambition to resurrect the Soviet empire. Instead, he argues that the U.S. and its European allies bear primary responsibility for provoking the conflict. Describing the 2014 events known as Euromaidan, Mearsheimer adopts the narrative of a “U.S.-backed coup”, writing that “although the full extent of U.S. involvement has not yet come to light, it is clear that Washington backed the coup.”
Another narrative present in Mearsheimer’s article is the alleged suppression of Russian-speaking minorities by the Ukrainian government. Despite the continued widespread presence of the Russian language in post-2014 Ukraine—such as in airline announcements, media, books, advertising, schools, and universities—he emphasizes the need to protect language rights, writing: “U.S. and European leaders should encourage Ukraine to respect minority rights, especially the language rights of its Russian speakers.”
At least since 2014, no one can accuse Mearsheimer of changing his mind often—the same narratives he expressed then can still be heard in his interviews and speeches today, even after the full-scale invasion.
In December 2024, he participated in a discussion on the channel China Academy with the notorious Russian far-right radical and imperialist Aleksandr Dugin. In 2023, Mearsheimer appeared on The Grayzone, a channel widely criticized for promoting anti-Western conspiracy theories and displaying a pro-Russian bias.
In March 2025, Mearsheimer was interviewed by the German magazine Der Spiegel. The interview sparked criticism due to his long-standing positions on Ukraine and Russia, which he once again made clear.
“As for his intentions, we have no evidence that he is an imperialist who wants to conquer all of Ukraine and create a Greater Russia, let alone additional territories in Eastern Europe.”
“But the cause of these wars was NATO expansion – not Putin's supposed imperialism.”
“I have argued for years that it should under no circumstances try to join NATO. If the Ukrainians had followed my advice, Ukraine would be intact today.”
“With NATO's expansion and the resulting war in Ukraine, we have foolishly driven Russia into the arms of the Chinese.”
These statements reflect Mearsheimer’s continued focus on blaming the West—particularly NATO—for the conflict, while minimizing the role of Russian imperial ambitions, a perspective that many critics argue underestimates both Ukraine’s sovereignty and the historical patterns of Russian expansionism.
In February 2024, Mearsheimer was interviewed by the Global Times, a Chinese state-run newspaper known for its nationalist tone and close alignment with the Chinese Communist Party. It operates under the People’s Daily, the CCP’s official mouthpiece, and often promotes state-sanctioned narratives on international affairs.
Quotes from this interview already painted a familiar picture—yet even more openly than in the Spiegel interview 2025.
"The conventional wisdom in the West is that Putin started the war because he's basically an imperialist or an expansionist. Specifically, he's said to be interested in creating a greater Russia, which means he is determined to conquer all of Ukraine. And then he's going to conquer other countries in Eastern Europe and create a new Russian Empire.
My argument is that this view is wrong; what Putin was doing when he attacked Ukraine was launching a preventive war. He did not have imperial ambitions. He was not committed to creating a greater Russia. His decision had everything to do with the fact that he viewed NATO expansion into Ukraine as an existential threat to Russia and he was determined to prevent that from happening."
"With regard to Vladimir Putin, this is a straightforward case of a country that felt that it was facing an existential threat from NATO expansion. It decided that to prevent that from happening, it would launch a war into Ukraine. This is called a preventive war.
I think it was rational because it fit very neatly with preventive war theory, which is a credible theory of international politics."
John Mearsheimer, in "Going Underground", a program published by RT (formerly known as Russia Today) in April 2024 Title: “Prof. John Mearsheimer: Israel wants to drag the US into war with Iran, Ukraine proxy war is lost”, Screenshot RT. com
Mearsheimer claims in this interview that there is “zero evidence” that imperialism is the motivation for this war. This assertion is contradicted by a wide range of public statements made by Vladimir Putin about Ukrainian history—including his Peter the Great speech—as well as other official rhetoric, the concept of the "Russkiy Mir" (Russian World), the narrative of "protecting Russians in Ukraine", statements by Dmitry Medvedev, and a long-standing tradition of Russian state propaganda. None of this, however, appears to shift Mearsheimer’s position.
His usage of terms like “preventive war” and “rational” reveals a lot about the direction in which he frames the conflict.
It is also worth mentioning that Mearsheimer appeared on RT (formerly known as Russia Today) more than once as part of the program "Going Underground", where he discussed the Middle East and the war in Ukraine, repeating his familiar narratives. The summary presented here offers only a small glimpse of the recurring positions he has promoted across various platforms—positions the author of this article considers more than worthy of criticism, as well as many of the channels he chooses to deliver them.
Sources & Links:
Spiegel Interview with John Mearsheimer, March 2025
In this interview with Der Spiegel, Mearsheimer repeats his long-standing views on the causes of the Ukraine war, defending the idea that NATO expansion—not Russian imperialism—is the main trigger of the conflict.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-shifting-world-order-trump-and-vance-have-contempt-for-the-europeans-a-7e70c5b5-b307-45cc-940e-62e40a506ad2John Mearsheimer’s Lecture on Ukraine: Why He Is Wrong and What Are the Consequences, Filip Kostelka, July 2022
In this article, political scientist Filip Kostelka critiques John Mearsheimer's views on the Ukraine conflict, arguing that Mearsheimer’s theory overlooks both the agency of Ukrainians and the realities of Russian aggression.
https://euideas.eui.eu/2022/07/11/john-mearsheimers-lecture-on-ukraine-why-he-is-wrong-and-what-are-the-consequences/John Mearsheimer and Aleksander Dugin at the “China Academy”, December 2024
https://x.com/ChinaAcademyORG/status/1866804635987742822John Mearsheimer Interview on the controversial fringe website The Grayzone, July 2023
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/07/30/john-mearsheimer-ukraine-war-is-a-long-term-danger/“Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin” , John Mearsheimer, October 2014.
https://www.mearsheimer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Why-the-Ukraine-Crisis-Is.pdf”The Ukraine crisis according to John J. Mearsheimer: Impeccable Logic, Wrong Facts”, Alexander Motyl, October 2014
https://europeanleadershipnetwork.org/commentary/the-ukraine-crisis-according-to-john-j-mearsheimer-impeccable-logic-wrong-facts/The end result of Russia-Ukraine conflict to be a frozen conflict devoid of a genuine peace agreement: John Mearsheimer, March 2024
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202402/1307492.shtml"Prof. John Mearsheimer: Israel wants to drag the US into war with Iran, Ukraine proxy war is lost", Going Underground, RT, April 2024
https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/595450-john-mearsheimer-professor-political-science/
