The Transformation of Ukraine – NATO Relationships in 1991–2019: A Historical Aspect

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to study the transformational processes of relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the tendencies of complex transition from cooperation to strategic partnershipas well as the dynamics of the basic parameters of interaction and prospects in the context of the latest arrangement of the world order.

The methodology of the paper is a set of scientific principles, general scientific and special historical methods as well as the interdisciplinary and complex approaches to the Ukraine – NATO relations historical discourse on the basis of holistic use of sources on this problem.

The scientific novelty. For the first time in the Ukrainian historiography, the historical-and-political discourse of the relations of Ukraine – NATO in 1991–2019 as a component of the allhistorical process of Euro-Atlantic integration have been violated and substantively covered, the author’s periodization of their formation in modern conditions has been proposed, problems and perspectives have been defined.

The Conclusions. The paper proves that Ukraine’s current relations with NATO, based on the institutional and legal frameworks, have undergone a difficult and contradictory path of upward trajectory modernization within the Partnership for Peace Programme, the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC) and the European-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), and have reached a new level after the signing of the Charter on a Special Partnership between Ukraine and NATO, other cooperation forums, in which a considerable experience of the relations transformation to the Euro-Atlantic course legitimation in the Constitution of Ukraine has accumulated. The special partnership between Ukraine and NATO is an important part of the new architecture of the European security, plays a significant role in enhancing Ukraine’s defence capability, reforming security due to the Alliance standards, implementing the democratic reforms, proving its viability, objective validity and historical perspective into a multifaceted complex of practical cooperation for the sake of peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic area.