Welcome to the RUCARR Distinguished Speaker Series September 8!

Gwendolyn Sasse: “Democracy and Authoritarianism in Russia‘s War against Ukraine”

Photo: Annette Riedl

Speaker

Gwendolyn Sasse is the Director of the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) and Einstein Professor for the Comparative Study of Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Department of Social Sciences at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Previously, she was Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Oxford. She maintains her connection with Oxford as a Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College. She is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Think Tank Carnegie Europe. Her research interests include the study of war, displacement, migrant political remittances, and protest mobilisation (with a special emphasis on Ukraine and Eastern Europe). Much of her research in recent years has been based on survey research, focus groups and interviews with „ordinary“ citizens, including migrants. Her research on migrant engagement and transnationalism has been published in leading political science and migration journals, incl. Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Comparative Migration Studies and in leading area studies journals. She has (co-)edited special issues for Post-Soviet Affairs, Europe-Asia-Studies and Nationalities Papers and contributed to numerous special issues. Her most recent book is Russia’s War against Ukraine, Polity Press, 2023 (published in German as Russlands Krieg gegen die Ukraine by C.H.Beck, 2022, revised edition 2024).

Abstract

Russia’s war against Ukraine began with the annexation of Crimea, continued with the war in Donbas and escalated into a full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. Regime dynamics are a key dimension of this war. Ukraine’s democratisation and westward orientation posed a threat to the self-preservation of the authoritarian system in Russia. Putin used several windows of opportunity to manage this perceived risk by weakening or destroying Ukraine as an independent state and nation. Ultimately, Russia’s imperial strategy has failed, but there is also no end to this war in sight. This lecture will trace the role of regime types in the escalation of war and the effects of war on the political systems and societies in Ukraine and Russia. Based on the comparative study of war and democracy/authoritarianism, this war raises questions about the future political outlook of Ukraine and Russia.

Moderator

Prof. Derek Hutcheson, Malmö University

Contact for the event