Prof Dr Sergiy Kudelia
Prof Sergiy Kudelia is an associate professor of political science at Baylor University in Texas where he taught since 2012. He received BA in International Relations from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, MA in Political Science from Stanford University and PhD in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University. He has also taught at the universities in Kyiv, Toronto, Greifswald and Washington, DC.
His research interests relate to political regimes, revolutions, institutional change and the outbreak and dynamics of armed conflicts with a focus on Ukraine. He published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles and chapters in academic volumes and co-authored a book “The Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin” published by the University of Michigan Press. Sergiy Kudelia has also contributed political commentary to international news outlets and prepared policy reports on Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policy.
Contact: sergiy.kudelia@unibas.ch
See the personal websiteDismantling the State from Below: Intervention, Collaborationism and Resistance in the Armed Conflict in Donbas
The war in Donbas has claimed more than 13,000 lives and left more than 30,000 injured and at least 2.6 million Ukrainians displaced since April 2014. In 2022, this conflict is once again at the centre of a confrontation between Russia and the "West". There can be no lasting solution to the conflict without a thorough understanding of how it began and how it escalated to become a full-scale war.
Our tenth URIS fellow Professor Sergiy Kudelia explored these questions in greater detail in his current research project "Dismantling the State from Below: Intervention, Collaborationism and Resistance in the Armed Conflict in Donbas" in the 2022 spring semester in Basel. In this project he investigates the rise of separatist groups in a number of towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in early 2014 and asks how it was that they were able to gain control over these regions.
News articles during URIS fellowship
Sergiy Kudelia regularly publishes articles and assessments on Russia's full scale invasion against Ukraine. With different perspectives, he casts different, global spotlights on the conflict.
- "Je länger der Krieg dauert, desto stärker ist die ukrainische Demokratie bedroht" Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), 11.05.2022
- "Die Türkei ist ein guter Vermittler" Wiener Zeitung, 03.05.2022
- "Ohne Unterstützung eines Oligarchen kommt man in kein hohes Amt", Blick TV, 31.03.2022
- How NATO can ease Ukraine’s path to neutrality, openDemocracy, 23.03.2022
- Ukraine’s occupied towns are facing a tough choice: collaborate or resist? openDemocracy, 07.03.2022
- "Dann könnte Putin angreifen, obwohl das nicht sein Plan"
Sergiy Kudelia and Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman (Professor of International Conflict Studies at ETH Zurich) analyze the communication and rhetoric of the conflicting parties currently struggling for a solution in the Ukraine crisis. Tamedia, 16.02.2022
- NATO or Bust: Why Do Ukraine’s Leaders Dismiss Neutrality as a Security Strategy? Russia Matters, 09.02.2022
- Ukraine and Russia: How Likely Is a Russian Attack? Kennan Institute (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars). 21.01.2022
- Public Podium Discussion: Russia's War Against Ukraine. Why Now and What's Next?
March 3, 2022, 6 pm – University of Basel
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led many of us to seek answers for the shocking events. Why this massive act of violence and where do we go from here? How does the current war fit into a broader context of Putin's campaign of pressure and coercive bargaining with five Ukrainian presidents since 2000. And what is our responsibility now?"
Teaching at the University of Basel
In his course "Democracy and Autocracy in Ukraine in Post-Soviet Context" (Monday, 12.15h–14.00h, Department of History) Sergiy Kudelia joined students in exploring the development of the political system and looking at identity politics and election campaigns since Ukraine's independence.
In the context of the different states and empires to which the various regions once belonged, the class will consider the significance of this political and cultural "heritage" for present-day Ukraine. The course focused on the national and regional politics of Ukraine, on patterns of internal political competition, and on forms of mass political mobilisation (e.g. Orange and Euromaidan Revolutions). Finally, the role and influence of Western and Russian actors on political developments in Ukraine have been explored.
Also interesting
Our URIS fellow Prof Sergiy Kudelia will join students in the spring semester 2022 in exploring the development of the political system and looking at identity politics and election campaigns since Ukraine's independence.
The video recording of the podium discussion is now online!
Workshop of the Center for Eastern European Studies (CEES) at the University of Zurich on May 20, 2022.
