International Journal of Management and Marketing Research Vol. 15, No. 1, 2022, pp. 15-46 ISSN: 1931-0269 (print) ISSN: 2157-0698 (online) www.theIBFR.com 15 HISTORICAL ANALOGIES AND THE UKRAINE CRISIS: COMPARISONS AND CONTRASTS OF INTERWAR GERMAN WITH POST-COLD WAR SERBIAN AND RUSSIAN IRREDENTISM AND WESTERN RESPONSES Benedict E. DeDominicis, Catholic University of Korea ABSTRACT The paper comparatively analyzes the extended Yugoslav crisis of the 1990s with the current Ukraine crisis, focusing on the eve of the February 24, 2022, Russian invasion. It illustrates post-1989 recurrent political behavior patterns rooted in nationalist irredentism. The Soviet regime authorities did not permit the Russian Social Federated Republic to create its own republic-level Communist Party. The paper demonstrates that Russian internal Soviet diaspora populations in the Ukrainian republic were incentivized to self-identify with the Soviet state. De facto Russification of the Soviet state nevertheless functioned and alienated non-Russian national minorities. The disintegration of the USSR left internal Russophone diaspora identity in a comparatively fluid condition. European Union integration encouraged state building around the republic borders inherited from the Soviet era. Russophone elements within Ukraine faced inducements to self-identify with the titular nation exercising the core community function of the post-Soviet core community state. Political trend irredentist responses in the Russian polity intensified. They view the EU as fortifying the construction of a Ukrainian nation state. The analysis suggests that the prevailing view in Moscow perceived the EU is a proxy for extending US hegemony. Moscow demands great power national status equality in international diplomacy. Ukraine’s partition is likely. JEL: D7, F02, F15, Z13 KEYWORDS: Irredentism, European Union, Nationalism, NATO, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine INTRODUCTION nation state is a state in which the overwhelming majority of citizens demonstrate their primary self-identification with the territorial community within the state boundaries. This demonstration refers to behavior by sacrifice of other values to support the sovereignty of the national community. This study utilizes the Cottam and Cottam (2001) political psychological framework for analyzing nationalism. Firstly, a nationalist is an individual who sees himself/herself as a member of a large group of people who constitute a community that is entitled to independent statehood and who is willing to grant that community a primary and the primary terminal loyalty. Secondly, nationalism characterizes a community when the modal, politically attentive citizen is a nationalist. A state territorial community acts nationalistically when the second condition is true, with regard to a particular community. If the community with which the nationalists identify does not have its own state, then this theoretical framework suggests that they will work to achieve one. By definition the attachment felt for this community will be the most important (terminal) one, and the community which a nationalist believes should have its own state will also be the largest community with which the nationalist identifies. When these conditions prevail, observers will see certain regular behavior patterns which we associate with nationalism. A