Recently, I watched a Vice special report called "World in Disarray" and in it, they discussed how the post cold war world, and especially the post 9/11 world has featured a breakdown of the traditional international power structures. In a section on the current Ukrainian crisis, Richard Haass said that the recent Russian annexation of Crimea is unprecedented in the post WWII international system. What caused this shift from a very old system where a country could gobble up smaller nations at its borders as a viable foreign policy, to today where that same action strikes us as shocking?
As I don't seem to be able to find a source to watch this report, are you able to flesh out Mr Haass' remarks at all to provide a little more context to the question? In what way does he claim that the annexation of Crimea is unprecedented?
It would seem that events in Tibet (1950-51), Kuwait (1990), East Timor (1975), and possibly parts of Israel/Palestine (1967) might accurately be described as post-WWII annexations, depending on the criteria by which one chooses to judge. Others may be able to contribute further examples.
Obviously most of the above involve disputes over historical and contemporary sovereignty, and domestic and international law, in different ways. Such annexations have had varying motivations, varying degrees of legitimacy in the eyes of regional players and the broader international community and, of course, some lasted (or continue to last) far longer than others.