The Politics And Complexities Of Crisis Management In Ukraine

Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In the decades between the end of the cold war and the crisis of 2014, the country suffered a large decline in agricultural and industrial production, plunging economic indicators into a sharp decline and leading to large-scale poverty and hardship. This collection by leading scholars from the region explores the various crises affecting Ukraine since independence. Valuable crisis management research is made available from both Russian and Ukrainian sources and the on-going crisis in Ukraine put in context and analysed. This accessible volume interacts with many disciplines including political science, security studies, crisis management and communication studies; and should prove useful to both students and researchers.

In this comprehensive volume, Canadian, Ukrainian, and American scholars examine various aspects of the Ukrainian crisis, and consider its impact on Europe. The chapters include topics such as: Russian narratives about Ukraine; the conflicting assumptions underlying their divergent nation-building agendas; new findings about the far right's involvement in the Maidan protests; the Ukrainian crisis from the perspective of Western grand strategy; the security implications of Russia's geopolitical agenda in Ukraine; the factors that contributed to the rise of separatism in Donbass; and the economic costs for Ukraine of choosing economic integration with Europe rather than Eurasia. This book demonstrates that the current crisis in Ukraine is much more complex than comes across in the media. It also explores the fact that, since Russia and Ukraine will always be neighbours, some sort of modus vivendi between them will have to be found. This book was originally published as a special issue of European Politics and Society.

The crisis in Ukraine that began in November 2013 constitutes a turning point in Euro-Atlantic security with potential global repercussions. It is the most significant security problem between Russia and the ‘West’ in the post Cold War period and the crisis has marked a new era in global politics. Contributions in this edited volume attempt to address a number of key aspects of the Ukrainian issue. How does the crisis impact upon Black Sea geopolitics and on regional governance? How can EU – Russia relations evolve under the new multipolar system? How is NATO affected? How important is the energy parameter in Russia-Ukraine-EU triangle? This edited volume aims to discloses the diverse narratives on the roots, evolution and repercussions of the crisis, indicating the extent of its complexity and highlighting important parameters of the Ukrainian issue. This book was originally published as a special issue of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies.

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 1,7, University of Kent (Brussels School of International Studies), language: English, abstract: The Ukraine crisis reached its peak point with the Russian annexation of the Crimea peninsula at the beginning of 2014. The annexation has since marked a turning point in the Russian-Western relations. Russia has disrespected international laws and norms, and thereby questioned the European order. The crisis reflects a significant shift in European geopolitics. It is a symptom amongst others of the long-term development in the Russian-Western relations. The crisis has exposed how vulnerable the post-Cold War European order is. The crisis management of the Weimar Triangle and Visegrad Group has not been fruitful. Indeed, the only forum which has succeeded in keeping the Russian-Western dialogue alive has been the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It is the largest regional security organization in the world comprising fifty-seven member states from Europe, Northern America, and Asia. The organization bases its work on the shared values of its member states and aims to promote peace, security, and democracy. Since the organization is so central to the conflict, the research question aims to explain Russia’s attitude towards the OSCE during the Ukraine crisis by asking: What was the Russian attitude towards the OSCE during the Ukraine crisis from 2013-2016? In support of the research question the paper will refer to Russia’s behavior towards other states on the former Soviet territory in order to draw parallels to the approach towards Ukraine before 2013 to establish an understanding of Russia’s general stances on the intergovernmental organization and the development of the relations.

This book examines the contemporary communicational practices of journalists and media outlets and the consumption and reception patterns of audiences in Russia’s provinces with an emphasis on the intergenerational transmission of culture and memory. Investigating the interaction and issues of contemporary identity, culture, audiences and journalism in a rapidly changing and evolving Russia, this volume goes beyond the large metropolitan centres into the provincial regions of Russia to develop a more comprehensive overview. Despite a popular image that is often projected of Russia as a homogeneous, often threatening entity, its regions are very far from being uniform, with diverse, varied geographies, ethnicities, religions, cultures, resources and economic infrastructure. The perspectives offered by a range of scholars and practitioners explore the generational, political and regional diversities that exist across this vast country and analyse local and regional media. Covering topics not often discussed, this volume offers an important contribution for everyone interested in Russian politics, culture, journalism and history and the study of local and regional communication studies.

The breakup of the Soviet Union led to the creation of new states and territorial conflicts of different levels of intensity. Scrutinising the post‐Soviet period, this volume offers explanations for both the frequency and the intensity of crises in the region. This book argues that the societies which emerged in the post-Soviet space share characteristic features, and that the instability and conflict-prone nature of the Soviet Union’s successor states can be explained by analysing the post-independence history of the region and linking it to the emergence of overlapping economic, political and violent crises (called 'Intersecting Crises Phenomena’). Transformation itself is shown to be a decisive process and, while acknowledging specific national and regional characteristics and differences, the authors demonstrate its shared impact. This comparison across countries and over time presents patterns of crisis and crisis management common to all the successor states. It disentangles the process, highlighting the multifaceted features of post-Soviet crises and draws upon the concept of crisis to determine the tipping points of post-Soviet development. Especially useful for scholars and students dealing with the Soviet successor states, this book should also prove interesting to those researching in the fields of communist and post‐communist Studies, Eurasian politics, international relations and peace and conflict studies.

In the 30 years since the emergence of the post-Soviet conflicts things have both changed and remained the same – continuities and changes in post-Soviet conflicts are the primary themes of this volume – it addresses all major wars, civil wars, and rebellions in the former Soviet Union. The volume focuses on factors that have contributed or may contribute to the resolution of the post-Soviet conflicts, most of which have represented rather long and damaging crises. In all conflict cases Moscow has been guided by Russian state interests – some have been instigated or fueled, others driven to a frozen state, and still a couple of others have been constructively resolved due to Moscow’s intervention. Russia has used a long-term strategy for the resolution of those conflicts that have taken place on its soil, but in regards to the conflicts in other post-Soviet states, there is no long-term solution in sight. As such, the conflicts in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and Nagorniy Karabakh, remain unresolved involving not only the named states, but Russia as well. They may represent localized national or regional crisis impacting only the states involved, but for the Russian Federation they epitomize one huge post-Soviet crisis with no obvious end.

This book makes an original contribution to Russia-EU literature by analyzing constructions and trans-formations of the Russian ‘Self’ in relation to the European "Other". It provides an orientation towards understanding Russian foreign policy discourse under Putin and offers a thorough analysis of the actions of key policy actors to ground the Russian discourse ideationally, historically, psychologically, and politico-sociologically. Providing a rich analysis of how Russian foreign policy toward the EU evolved from cooperation to competition and ultimately conflict, the author argues that to understand these changes and continuities we must explore concepts of sovereignty and balance of power central to the drafting of Russian foreign policy. Primarily situated in the fields of International Relations and Russian foreign policy, this book will also be of interest to scholars in the fields of Foreign Policy Analysis, Post-Soviet Studies, Eurasian Studies, Historical International Relations, Critical Security Studies, Political Sociology, and Political Psychology.