Section: Atlantic Council (USA)
Europe’s Refugee Crisis Shows Ukraine’s Resilience
Ukraine Has Absorbed 1.5 Million Displaced; Soon It Must Employ Them This article originally appeared on the US Institute of Peace blog, the Olive Branch. With Europe awash in more than a half-million refugees from Middle Eastern and other wars, it might be easy to overlook Ukraine’s response to its own population—nearly three times the...
Ukrainians Eager to Go to Polls
In less than a week, Ukrainians go to the polls to elect mayors, city councils, and regional councils, and they’re eager to do so. A recent poll carried out by the International Republican Institute found that 75 percent of Ukrainians are very likely or somewhat likely to vote on October 25. A new law requires a runoff election if no...
Ukraine Can Beat Its Political Corruption
Ukraine’s politics suffer from a vicious circle of corruption. Its elections are extremely expensive. Large amounts of gray and black funds are needed to finance them. Criminals, called gray cardinals, handle this black financing, extracted from the state treasury and state companies. To corrupt all, the gray cardinals and their political...
New Movie Reveals Russia’s Attempts to Destroy Ukraine
Ukraine is a nation interrupted, its identity and promise stolen by invaders and predators for centuries.Ukraine’s principle oppressor has been, and remains, Russia where leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin propagate the fiction that Ukraine is “little Russia.” But the two are distinctive and the Ukrainian language is...
Why Crimea’s Blockade is Necessary
Since September 20, Crimean Tatar activists and other protesters—mostly from the Right Sector—have been blockading the flow of goods from mainland Ukraine to Crimea. The Kyiv government has neither formally supported nor criticized the move. The reaction among analysts, observers, and bloggers has been mixed—from enthusiasm to caution and even...
Made in Moscow: Religious Freedom Abuses Continue in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine
“We cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated,” US President Barack Obama said on September 28 at the UN General Assembly. He was condemning Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its aggressive moves in eastern Ukraine.Much of the world has decried these acts and their most...
For Decentralization to Work, Reformers Must Support Legislation for Strong Local Governance
As the August 31 grenade attacks, rioting, and violent protests at Ukraine’s Parliament—the Verkhovna Rada—demonstrated quite literally, the Ukrainian decentralization effort is an explosive issue. Constitutional amendments granting local communities greater governing responsibilities have sparked widespread criticism, both in Ukraine and...
Ukraine’s New Police Are an Expression of a “Civil” State
Almost two years after the Euromaidan demonstrations began, most Ukrainians agree that the pace of reforms has been largely disappointing. While many former civil-society activists hold key positions in the government and parliament, corruption continues to plague the country and state institutions cannot provide basic services.Amid the...
Snapshots of Ukraine’s Five Hottest Elections
Ukrainians go to the polls on October 25 to elect mayors and city councils. These local elections matter more than one might expect. The likely passage of a constitutional amendment on decentralization by parliament later this year will give the newly elected mayors and councils more autonomy and authority than ever before. …read more...
A Bold and Optimistic Strategy for Europe
US President Barack Obama recently derided critics of his foreign policies as offering merely mumbo-jumbo. Yet everyone can plainly see the administration’s shocking degree of across-the-board strategic incomprehension and incompetence in Europe and the Middle East. In fact, European Union diplomats publicly admit that confidence in US...
