The Battle of the Titans : ‘Russia’ Versus ‘Ukraine and U.S. Led NATO Expansionism’ and Its Consequences to the Globe

Given the collapse of Soviet Union and concerted move by US led NATO to expand its sphere of influence to cover the nation-states that broke-away from the former Soviet Republic, and the resistance being waged by Kremlin/Russia to regain it lost spheres of influence in the Eastern bloc, the stage for competition over space and resources as well as the re-emergence of cold war has been ignited. The critical questions worth asking are: Can these contests between the two nuclear and regional hegemons that are all out to test their ego and military supremacy on Ukraine soil, facilitate their respective decline or could it lead to their mutual assured destruction to strengthen the chances of China becoming global hegemon? Is peace with Russia or NATO possible via diplomatic jaw-jaw to avert the rise of collateral damage in Ukraine? This paper examines extant literature on the contending issues at stake within the ambit of Hegemon Stability Theory. The research methodology consists of content analysis of documents which are narrative in nature and secured substantially from secondary sources obtained from internets, newspapers, journals, magazines, and books. The paper posits that global peace will continue to be elusive so long as the UNSC remains lopsided in favour of the current permanent members alias ‘P5’ with their overriding veto powers to decide the fate of world affairs. The paper concludes that the key to peace in the Russia-Ukraine raging conflict lies in the hands of the Ukrainian President’s table to surrender and back down on his quest to join EU and NATO. Also, the democratizing the UNSC in such a way as to have a good representation that captures the world-wide regional hegemons by geographical spread is another panacea to avert transnational conflicts of this nature, in addition to the UNSC initiating a move to prosecute the war crimes being perpetrated in the ICJ and ICC