Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
Ukraine’s Decentralization Reforms Since 2014: Initial Achievements and Future Challenges
25 September 2019 Since the Euromaidan protests of 2013-14, Ukraine has conducted a political decentralization process that seeks to fundamentally restructure centre–periphery relations. This paper outlines the achievements and shortcomings of decentralization and highlights a window of opportunity for completing the first phase of reforms....
The Steinmeier formula: in search of a compromise on the Donbas
On 1 October, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced that an agreement had been reached to implement the so-called Steinmeier formula as part of resolving the conflict in the Donbas as part of the meeting of the trilateral contact group in Minsk. …read more Source:: Centre for Eastern Studies...
Book Launch: The Firebird: The Elusive Fate of Russian Democracy
In 1991, as tanks moved through Moscow to seize the Russian White House, Russia’s first Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev stood with President Boris Yeltsin and his team. Kozyrev later participated in negotiations among leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to formally end the Soviet Union and create the newly independent Russian...
What Exactly Is Trump’s Impeachable Offense?
I confess that I still don’t get what exactly is going to be the particular offense for which President Trump is going to be impeached. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favor of impeaching Trump and removing him from office, but only for grave crimes, such as waging war illegally (i.e., without the constitutionally required...
We aid Ukraine to help it fight Russia. By holding back support, Trump helped Putin.
On several consecutive mornings in early 2014, I woke up with one agonizing plea: Please, Lord, let the Ukrainian service members still be alive. I feared that while I slept, Russians might have slaughtered thousands of outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainians trapped on their own air and naval bases. Hostilities between Russia and Ukraine began in...
After Trump-Zelensky scandal, Ukraine pressed to reset Western ties
Ukraine’s president, political neophyte Volodymyr Zelensky, appears out of his depth after just 4 months in office, as his relations with President Trump have put him front and center in a political scandal rocking the U.S. and rippling across the globe. Why it matters: Given the deep challenges facing Ukraine and Zelensky, Ukraine can...
What Was This CIA Officer Thinking?
Photo: White HouseThe news is dominated by “the whistleblower,” the CIA officer who reported to the CIA Inspector General (IG) that President Donald Trump may have committed a crime during a conversation with the president of Ukraine. I’ve been fascinated by the story for a couple of reasons. First, as a whistleblower and a former CIA...
Kennan Cable No. 44: Ukrainian Local Governance Prior to Euromaidan: The Pre-History of Ukraine’s Decentralization Reform
Introduction Democratic states often decentralize power because the dispersion of prerogatives and responsibilities improves the involvement of ordinary people in government. Political elites in semi- or non-democratic states, in contrast, tend to prefer power concentration, as they benefit from centralized decision-making and implementation;...
Foreign Aid for Dictators
Notice something important about the hoopla regarding President’s Trump withholding of US foreign aid to Ukraine while he was requesting Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden for possible corruption: Nobody in Washington, D.C., or within the establishment press is questioning the concept of foreign aid...
Daniel McAdams: ‘The US Has Ceased Being a Republic and Has Become a National Security State’
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: Your Twitter account has just been closed. Why?Daniel McAdams: In August I was watching a segment of the Sean Hannity program while at a friend’s house and noticed that despite an hour of Hannity ranting against the “deep state” in the US, he was wearing a lapel pin bearing the seal of the US Central Intelligence agency,...
