What explains the resilience of local authorities in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion? Using original survey data, this talk explores how local authorities continue to provide public services and respond to crises because of Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure and massive internal displacement. The findings highlight a shifting social contract in Ukraine towards partnership between authorities and citizens as the foundation for democracy.

Oleksandra Keudel is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Policy and Governance at the Kyiv School of Economic and is a Petrach Ukrainian Studies Fellow at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University. Her book “How Patronal Networks Shape Opportunities for Local Citizen Participation in a Hybrid Regime: A Comparative Analysis of Five Cities in Ukraine” was published with ibidem/Columbia University Press. Keudel’s research focuses on local democracy, social movements and civic engagement, and business-political arrangements at the local level in Ukraine.

Kaija E. Schilde
Jean Monnet Chair of European Security
Associate Professor, Pardee School of Global Studies
Director, Center for the Study of Europe
Project on the Political Economy of Security
Pardee School Initiative on Forced Migration and Human Trafficking

The EU is a non-unitary security state of international significance and is threat responsive to challenges to its interests. It has become a security state through a combination of incremental institutional layering and shifts in international threat, primarily the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and intervention in Eastern Ukraine, and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The security studies debate on European strategic autonomy has so far ignored and dismissed the infrastructural power of the EU. The EU’s infrastructural power comes from regulatory, monetary and market instruments, and a nascent but increasing direct procurement of military materiel. EU infrastructural power complicates EU-related state formation theory debates. Traditional security states extract resources from their society, directly tax their populations, and have formal authority to generate military capability. Historically, the EU has done none of these things. Scholars using the conventional lens of state security authority have concluded that the EU is not yet a security state, because it does not tax and spend to generate military capacity on its own (Kelemen & McNamara, 2022). However, this misdiagnoses the sources of infrastructural security power in the 21st century, and only compares the political development of the EU to the generation of military power in earlier centuries. Moreover, this position fails to consider the comparative: how do contemporary non-EU states generate military capacity? To what are we comparing EU state formation? I theorize a broader definition of security state to align with 21st Century generation of military power and evaluates the shifts in EU infrastructural power in light of changes.

Prior Title: EU Defense Cooperation and the War in Ukraine

Join members of Brazil Nuts and the Italian club as they make Valentine's in Portuguese and Italian, and practice conversation skills!

Join the French Club for Spring 2023's weekly conversation hours, on both Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5-6:30 pm!

This is the second event as part of the series Race, Rebellion, and Global Solidarity. The classic 1973 film, based on the novel by writer Sam Greenlee, tells the fictional story of Dan Freeman, the first Black CIA officer. The film, directed by the actor and filmmaker Ivan Dixon, follows Freeman through his training in the Central Intelligence Agency, his subsequent assignment as a field officer, and his eventual role as the leader of a paramilitary group engaged in armed resistance against institutionalized racism. There is no registration for this screening.

Join the Spanish Club for Spring 2023's weekly conversation hours, on Wednesdays from 6-8 pm!

Join the Arabic Language and Culture Club for this weekly get-together and safe space for Arabic speakers to have a conversation and work on their language skills!