[PAST EVENT] After Imperial Collapse: Regime Change, Rebellion and War in Russia and Ukraine

February 12, 2015
5pm
Location
Tucker Hall, 127A
350 James Blair Dr
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
February 12, 5pm, Tucker Hall 127A
After Imperial Collapse: Regime Change, Rebellion, and War in Russia and Ukraine
Professor Alexander Motyl (Rutgers University)

The ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war is the product of three factors. First, the Soviet empire's sudden collapse propelled its successor state, Russia, to seek reimperialization for both structural and ideological reasons. Second, the emergence and consolidation of a post-authoritarian,"fascistoid" regime made imperial revival a central feature of Vladimir Putin's hyper-masculine self-legitimation. Finally, the "colored revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan, and especially the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine, directly threatened Putin's imperial project, regime, and self-legitimation and impelled him to protect the bases of his rule by launching "little wars" against Russia's neighbors. Given Putin's proneness to strategic miscalculations, the little war against Ukraine has become a deadly slog with no end in sight. Its upshot may very well be another regime change--in Russia.

Next in the Series:
February 19, 5pm, Tucker Hall 127A
"Putin's Game in Ukraine" Professor Valerie Bunce (Cornell University)

February 26, 5pm, Washington Hall 201
Balaclavas & Incense: On Russian Spectacle,
the Oscar, and Yalta-Film
Professor Nancy Condee (University of Pittsburgh)

April 9, 5pm, Tucker Hall 127A
"The Origins of the War in Ukraine"
Professor Lucan Way (University of Toronto)
Contact

[[evprok, Elena Prokhorova]] at 221-7755