The politics of crisis management and conflict resolution in Ukraine: Konstanz University MA students’ field trip to Kyiv

Oleksandr Ivanov

PhD (History), Associate Professor
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Kyiv, Ukraine

DOI: http://doi.org/10.17721/2524-048X.2019.14.170-175

This report describes the goal, mission, composition of participants, main events and results of the applied research seminar in the format of a field trip under the aforementioned name, which was organized and held during the summer semester 2019 by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Steffen Eckеhard (Ph.D. in Political Science at Konstanz University, Germany) for the MA-students of the International Administration and Conflict Management Program, with assistance from professors and students of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv’s Faculty of History.

The seminar consisted of two parts. The first – preparatory-theoretical, was conducted at Konstanz University, Germany. The second – empirically-practical, was held for a week in Kyiv. Aside from Germans, as much as half of the research group consisted of exchange students from other countries: Great Britain, Netherlands, Canada, Lithuania, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine and Sweden. Overall, the students conducted 16 interview meetings with representatives of international, domestic, public and non-profit organizations in just five days.

Such interviews were conducted with, among others, the students who took part in the Revolution of Dignity and military conflict in Donbas on Ukraine’s side. Besides, Ukrainian politicians, “NV” radio station’s editor-in-chief, political scientists and employees of international organizations such as the EU, OSCE and UN also helped the participants of the seminar to formulate their own view of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Based on the collected and analyzed information, 6 reports were prepared. They can be accessed in English at the official web-page of the research group: https://www.polver.uni-konstanz.de/eckhard/teaching/applied-teaching/

Keywords: crisis management, conflict resolution, field trip, Ukraine, University of Konstanz, Kyiv.

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