Ukraine’s ongoing transformation is potentially revolutionary, but implementing reforms today is particularly difficult due to the conflicts and deadlocks involved in executing several deep transitions or consequential policies in parallel, known as the simultaneity problem. Despite not yet having obtained official confirmation of its EU membership prospects, Kyiv has started the proper legislative processes to align its body of laws with that of the European Union. At the same time, Ukraine is fighting against Moscow’s hybrid war, not only mountinga military defence in eastern Ukraine but also organizing responses to an array of non-military Russian warfare tactics, which include propaganda campaigns, cyber attacks, and secret service operations. Furthermore, Ukraine is implementing far-reaching decentralization, health care, and other reforms, some of them developed even before the negotiations on the EU Association Agreement had begun. All these impressive initiatives make Ukraine one of the world’s most interesting countries to watch today.
Speaker: ANDREAS UMLAND
Speaker: ANDREAS UMLAND
Since 2014 the political scientist and historian Andreas Umland (PhD Cambridge 2008) has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation in Kyiv, where he studies Russian and Ukrainian politics. Dr. Umland has held fellowships and lectureships at Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Oxford, Urals State University, Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, and National University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy." He is an academic advisor to the European Integration Committee of the Parliament of Ukraine, general editor of the book series "Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society," and regular contributor to periodicals such as the Huffington Post, Kyiv Post, Newsweek, and Ukraïns’ka pravda.