Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
Arms control, security cooperation, and U.S.-Russian relations
By Steven PiferFor nearly 50 years, arms control agreements have contributed to more stable and predictable relations between Washington and Moscow. Beginning in the late 1980s, agreements such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty followed by the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) went beyond mere limitations to...
Mixed Results for Emerging Europe in Legatum Prosperity Index
World prosperity increased in 2017 and now sits at its highest level in the last decade, being 2.6 per cent higher than in 2007, according to the 11th edition of the Legatum Prosperity Index. However, the gap between the highest and lowest scores has increased and the spread between nations is growing. Each country has been measured on nine...
Belarus Refinery Boss Upbeat Despite Challenges
The most important oil refinery in Belarus, Naftan, is currently struggling with increasing oil prices and decreasing wages, while the whole country has been affected by the economic crisis, and protests against an unpopular new tax are on the increase. “In 2017, as compared to 2016, we saw a general improvement of the spread between world price...
CERN quantum computing experiments and Ukrainian scientific co-authoring project to boost R&D effectiveness
Last week a delegation of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) visited Kyiv. The former CERN Director Rolf-Dieter Heuer, the one who announced the winning discovery of the Higgs boson (the authors received a Nobel prize later), opened the CERN in Images exhibition in Ukraine. UkraineIS has obtained the high-resolution copies of...
Poland’s right-wing government poised to seize more control of the judiciary than Yanukovych achieved in Ukraine
Poland’s ruling party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość [PiS] is set to gain effective control over the National Council of the Judiciary and influence over all judicial appointments in the country. Many of their moves seem ominously reminiscent of the methods used to gain control – and he hoped, to maintain it, by Ukraine’s ex-President...
Beyond Zapad 2017: Russia’s Destabilizing Approach to Military Exercises
The world can be relieved that Russia did not use this fall’s Zapad 2017 military exercise as a pretext for aggression or to permanently base troops in Belarus, as many analysts feared before the event. Much has been written about the exercise, most of it focusing on competing claims regarding its size and purpose. What has received less...
The Duplicitous Superpower
Ted Galen Carpenter For any country, the foundation of successful diplomacy is a reputation for credibility and reliability. Governments are wary of concluding agreements with a negotiating partner that violates existing commitments and has a record of duplicity. Recent U.S. administrations have ignored that principle, and their actions have...
Introspecting on trans-Atlantic alliance at Halifax
This blog is based on discussions at the Halifax International Security Forum, held mid-November 2017. For more details on the event click here. A year after Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential election, the United States is debating and re-orienting its global engagement. This has sparked concern among the U.S.’ allies about...
Eastern Partnership in Demise
The fifth summit of Eastern Partnership, taking place in Brussels, was a classic case of unmemorable event that other than being a photo-op delivered nothing and satisfied no one. This is perhaps unsurprising for the two fundamental reasons: mismatch of expectations and poor leadership of the initiative. When Eastern Partnership was initiated in...
A quarter-century of independent Ukraine. Dimensions of transformation
On 24 August 1991, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR proclaimed independence, and on 1 December the same year, the Ukrainian people ratified that proclamation in a referendum. The new Ukrainian state had some very important assets, such as the peaceful path that led to its independence, the fact that its territory was uncontested and its...
