Ukraine has no good options if Russia refuses to accept anything less than its own peace terms, and there are challenges to making neutrality a viable option to end the war.
Post-Soviet Space
Ukraine: the complex calculations that will decide whether Belarus enters the conflict on Russia’s side
Differentiating between Belarus and Russia and carefully calibrating policies towards both countries should be among the priorities for western policy makers.
Could China be a partner for the West in managing the Ukraine crisis?
For the sake of Ukraine, the opportunity, however slim, to cooperate with China on stopping Russia’s aggression should not be discarded out of hand.
Enhancing the Robustness of Causal Claims Based on Case Study Research on Conflict Zones
Focusing on process tracing and using the example of fieldwork in Donbas, I develop an argument in this article in Nationalities Papers on what theoretically grounded and empirically detailed methodological solutions can be considered to mitigate the challenges of...
Decentralization Reloaded in Ukraine?
History is often said to repeat itself or at least to rhyme. Decentralization in Ukraine has been on and off the agenda of successive governments since the country’s independence in 1991. Much like previous attempts to decentralize power, President Zelenskiy’s draft decentralization law has become embroiled in long-established power struggles and had to be withdrawn.
Connecting Human Rights and Conflict Resolution in Eastern Ukraine
How can international human rights protection mechanisms be employed in the gray zone of armed conflict in weak states? This question is particularly relevant for the war in eastern Ukraine where for five years residents have been without state aegis for their most basic human rights.
In Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy must tread carefully or may end up facing another Maidan uprising
It’s been six years since the start of the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine, which led to the ousting of then-President Viktor Yanukovych. By the time his successor Petro Poroshenko was elected in May 2014, the domestic political scene in Ukraine and the geopolitical dynamics in the contested EU-Russia neighbourhood surrounding it had fundamentally altered.
Ukraine presidential election: young comedian leads polls, but country’s dangerous divisions are no joke
Ukraine’s presidential election campaign is a tragic indictment of the country’s current political state. Most candidates have adopted populist strategies, voters appear highly irrational in their preferences, trust in the political system and its leading representatives is extremely low, and the country remains deeply divided and perpetually stuck in a systemic social, political, and economic crisis partly of its own making.
The Dynamics of Emerging De-Facto States: Eastern Ukraine in the Post-Soviet Space
What are the causes and consequences of the crisis in Ukraine, and what has been the nature of local, national, and external actors’ involvement in it? These are the questions that my colleague Tetyana Malyarenko and I examine in this book which represents...