Palestine and Ukraine: A Postcolonial Critique of the Neo-Realist Strategy of Offshore Balancing
Journal: Millennium Journal of International Studies
Year: 2026

This article employs Edward Said’s contrapuntal reading to challenge the account offered by proponents of offshore balancing of the conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine. This reading, the article argues, presents two challenges to the strategy of offshore balancing. First, it shows that the strategy’s treatment of Israel and Russia as states like any others morally equalises the dispossessors and the dispossessed, and leads to unviable policy conclusions – namely, the two-state solution (Palestine