What do Ukraine, Turkey and South Korea have in common? Until recently, these three nations have never been strategically related to one another in my dictionary. This year, however, they all seem to have started drifting into chaos after being trapped in the new reality of international politics of the 21st century.
Turkey was once an Islamic empire that ruled the Middle East and parts of Europe. South Korea is a Northeast Asian nation with strong Confucianism traditions. Ukraine, a former republic of the Soviet Union, is an Orthodox Christian East European nation. All three, ironically, were most loyal to their alliances in the past.
Whether in the U.S.-South Korea-Japan security mechanism, NATO or the Soviet Union, South Korea, Turkey and Ukraine were model nations that played a crucial role in maintaining and enhancing those once robust alliances. Now, however, they are departing from where we thought they belong.