Browsing by Subject "Ukraine"
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Item A NEW COLD WAR? A RESURGENT RUSSIA AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR REGIONAL AND GLOBAL SECURITYTanner, Ashley N.; Ehlers, Robert S; Dailey, Jeffrey D; Taylor, William A; Lamberson, Christine MRecent events in Eastern Europe and the Middle East have prompted world leaders to opine that the world is entering a new Cold War. These concerns are based on the recent invasions of Crimea and Ukraine, action in Syria, Russian rhetoric, and military posturing by both sides. Russian history, strategy, and strategic culture provide context for the current state of affairs. These do not, however, guarantee that the present implementation of strategy will mirror the past and that the goals are to return to a Soviet-style, Cold War-era, bipolar world order. The issue is more complex then our own cognitive biases have allowed us to comprehend. Russia is resurgent and does pose a threat to stability, but its goal is neither a Cold War nor a hot war. Rather, it seeks to be treated as an equal and to reassert a greater level of control and influence over its former lands.Item Characterization of the mitochondrial DNA control region of Clethrionomys and its use as a genotoxicological marker(Texas Tech University, 1999-12) Matson, Cole WesleyThe purpose of this study was to develop a maternal marker which could be utilized in genotoxicological and systematic studies. The mtDNA control region was chosen as the area of primary interest because of its high rate of evolution, and the fact that this region has been shown to be useful in previous gene diversity studies (Bickham et al., 1998). To understand which portion of the mtDNA control region would be appropriate to use to address various aspects of population genetics use, I analyzed the sequence variation across various regions of the control region of the genus Clethrionomys. This work is presented in Chapter II, and has been submitted to the journal. Molecular Biology and Evolution. The authors on this manuscript were: Robert J. Baker and Cole W. Matson. The maternal marker that was chosen after consideration of the results presented in Chapter II was employed to examine the consequences of long-term chronic radiation exposure. To study the patterns of variation across time and space in exposed and unexposed populations of Clethrionomys glareolus inhabiting highly contaminated sites in the Chomobyl region, I examined three populations. The results of this study are presented in Chapter III. This chapter has been submitted for publication in the journal. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. The authors on this manuscript were: Cole W. Matson, Brenda E. Rodgers, Ronald K. Chesser, and Robert J. Baker.Item Community Involvement in the Preservation of World Heritage Sites: The Case of the Ukrainian Carpathian Wooden Churches(2013-05-30) Schneider, Hans RainerEncouraging the participation of the local population in the preservation of World Heritage Sites is one of the mission?s of UNESCO?s World Heritage Centre. Community involvement is also critical in the planning process. This dissertation argues that community involvement should be part of the World Heritage List nomination process and long-term preservation of the sites and that mechanisms should be in place to ensure this as part of the nomination file. To support this argument, literature on community involvement and World Heritage Sites is reviewed. Part of this dissertation is to provide a framework for community involvement at World Heritage Sites. In order to accomplish this, the known potential socio-economic benefits of World Heritage designation are also reviewed. This provides a framework whereby communities can be consulted and involved in activities at World Heritage Sites with the goal of preservation of the site and achieving additional socio-economic benefits. This framework was used to explore the attitudes of eight Western Ukrainian communities on the use of their wooden churches that are nominated to the UNESCO World Heritage List to improve their socio-economic conditions as well as preserve the churches. Previous studies focused mostly on the effects of World Heritage Site designation to produce social and economic benefits. This dissertation takes a different approach by involving the community at the nomination stage to determine which of these benefits they support and develop a plan of action and guidelines focused on achieving the desired changes. A community survey was developed under the supervision of this dissertation committee and Dr. Bevz at the Department of Restoration and Reconstruction of Architectural Complexes at Lviv Polytechnic National University as part of a J. William Fulbright grant to Ukraine. The survey responses were analyzed using both summary and statistical analysis to develop guidelines and a plan of action to be implemented by Lviv Polytechnic. This dissertation provides much needed research into community involvement at World Heritage Sites for their preservation and to achieve socio-economic benefits for the surrounding communities. The framework laid out in this dissertation has implications not only for Western Ukraine, but cultural heritage sites throughout the world.Item Gender, aging, and major depressive disorder in Ukraine(2011-05) Chamberlin, Margaret Shively; Stolp, Chandler; Buckley, Cynthia J.The World Health Organization has made global mental health a priority since making it the center of world health day 2001, yet much of the current literature on mental health examines the subject within the context of the U.S. and Western Europe. This research takes a more global approach, shifting the focus to the issue of depression in Ukraine. Specifically this thesis analyzes data to examine the hypotheses that: 1) a statistically significant relationship exists between gender and depression prevalence in Ukraine; 2) women over the age of 50 in Ukraine have a significantly higher chance of suffering from depression than other age groups, unlike trends described in the literature; and 3) there are socio-economic and social factors present in Ukraine, which impact depression prevalence among women. A mixed-methodology, which utilizes analysis of quantitative data from the World Mental Health survey initiative, completed in Ukraine in 2004, and qualitative interview data, was employed to explore these hypotheses. Strong relationships are found between gender and depression and between depression and aging, particularly past the age of 50. Some socio-demographics of significance include low level of education, very inadequate financial resources and being on a pension. The conclusions that result from this analysis, describe an interesting case for assessment of global mental health issues. While the results are perhaps not generalizable far beyond Ukraine the conclusions drawn have interesting implications for how we study global mental health and the characteristics which make a person more or less vulnerable to mental illness.Item May the best manipulator win : 2004 and 2010 Ukrainian presidential elections revisited(2014-05) Smith, Tony Lee; Moser, Robert G.Ukraine is currently in the throes of revolution. Will this popular uprising move Ukraine closer to the West and a democratic government or strengthen the country's ties to Putin and Russia? Viktor Yanukovich's second round victory in the 2004 presidential election was nullified by Ukraine's high court due to rampant electoral manipulation. Viktor Yushchenko, supported by hundreds of thousands of protesters in the 2004 Orange Revolution, became president and ushered in, what many hoped would be, a more democratic government. Infighting and competition among the Orange coalition soon rendered the Yushchenko government ineffective. Ukraine's progression towards democracy slowed and ties to Russia began to flourish once again when Yanukovich became Yushchenko's prime minister. In 2010, Yanukovich was elected president in another second round election against Yulia Tymoshenko that observers and academics deemed free and fair. Unfortunately, a new evaluation of both the 2004 and 2010 elections presents a much less encouraging view of Ukrainian politics. As shown in this paper, electoral manipulation was present in both the 2004 and 2010 elections. Additionally, both parties participated in manipulatory behavior in both elections. This finding challenges much of the academic literature to date on Ukrainian politics. In support of this finding of corruption by multiple candidates, a unique list experiment was administered to raion (county) level administrators in Ukraine. These administrators were asked about their views regarding electoral manipulation. The results of this experiment suggest that these administrators are still very influenced by and, arguably, willing to engage in electoral manipulation. The experiment shows that, at least at the raion level, Ukrainian governance has not become more democratic. Overall, the prognosis for democratization efforts in Ukraine is not good.Item Post-Soviet super-presidentialism : explaining constitutional choice in Russia and Ukraine(2013-12) Goodnow, Regina Rose; Moser, Robert G., 1966-The Russian and Ukrainian constitutions—like those in many other post-Soviet states—have concentrated political power in exclusive “super” presidencies. However, the concentration of power has persisted in only one of the two cases. Russian presidential authority was resilient in the face of attempts to increase legislative strength in the 1990s, even when severe economic and political crises undermined the presidency of Boris Yeltsin. In contrast, Ukrainian presidential power fluctuated over time, with “Orange Revolution” constitutional reforms shifting power to the parliament in 2004 and their annulment returning power to the president in 2010. What explains the different trajectories of Russia’s and Ukraine’s presidential systems? Using process-tracing to parse out the actions of elites during the 1990s and 2000s in combination with analyses of the electoral foundations of elite competition in the two cases, this dissertation develops an argument about the origins of super-presidential systems and the prospects for constitutional change in such systems. Concentrated executive power in Russia and Ukraine: (1) depended on elites’ preferences for more or less concentrated political authority; (2) these preferences depended on how elites perceived their political prospects for capturing and holding presidential power; (3) elites’ perceptions of their prospects for gaining and holding presidential power were conditioned by the relative balance of power between major political forces; and (4) this balance of power was very vulnerable to pressure from social forces. It was this final factor that distinguished the Ukrainian and Russian cases. Ukraine had more balanced political competition because of its coherent ethno-linguistic cleavage, and consequently more uncertainty about rival elites’ political fortunes, which produced challenges to super-presidentialism. Russia’s experience with regional politics, by contrast, has not produced a similarly stable balance of power between rival forces, because the country’s minority groups were too diverse and dispersed to form a unified constituency that could challenge the political dominance of the center. The structural underpinnings of elite competition help to explain why the preferences of self-interested politicians to concentrate or disperse political power changed over time in ways that promoted unstable super-presidentialism in Ukraine compared to much more durable super-presidentialism in Russia.Item Reconciling the exotic "other" in Nikolai Gogol's Taras Bulba(2015-05) Singer, Eva Lynn; Garza, Thomas J.; Pesenson, MichaelAround the mid-sixteenth century, the Ukrainian Cossacks arose out of the desire to create free and equal communities outside the control of the imperial powers of Russia and Poland. In the nineteenth century, the Cossack was brought to the forefront of cultural myth making in the search for identity during the historical periods of Nationalism and Romanticism. The Zaporozhian Cossacks were central in the conceptualization of the modern Ukrainian identity and development of national consciousness because they represent independence, fighting suppression, and the simple values of honor and love of nature. While Russian national identity relies on the direct lineage from Kyivan Rus' and on the idea of a Slavic brotherhood to justify their imperial actions, Ukrainian national identity is based on the distinct origins of Russians and Ukrainians. Nikolai Gogol's nineteenth century story, Taras Bulba, depicts the Cossacks through the medium of historical epic and addresses the anxiety with foreigners and identity. The theoretical framework of "Orientalism" sheds light on the relationships between the Cossacks and their neighboring nations of Russia, Poland, and Turkey and their liminal existence. The Cossacks of Taras Bulba exhibit contradictory thoughts and values that somehow coexist; the identities of exotic Cossack and nationalist Russian are reconciled. The representations of foreigners ("others") and women as well as the exotic eye are indicators of the tension in the Ukrainian Cossacks' imperial relationships. The twenty-first century films produced by Ukraine and Russia, demonstrate how both Ukrainian and Russian cultural myths can be extracted from the same text. Gogol showed how the Cossacks reconciled the exotic "other" in Taras Bulba, establishing identity based on contradictions in the geographical space of the borderlands.Item Surviving total war in Kherson Region, Ukraine in 1941 - 1945(2013-05) Alexander, Vladyslav Christian; Wynn, Charters, 1953-; Bychkova Jordan, BellaWhile there are plenty of published materials concerning survival in Ukraine during World War II, most of those bypass the Kherson region and focus primarily on the German occupation. This thesis is an attempt to study the complex history of people's survival in Ukraine during a large portion of the twentieth century, through a micro-history of the city of Kherson and the neighboring villages, and towns of the region. The study analyzes the actions and the consequences for the various social, political and ethnic groups of changes in the ruling regimes, emphasizing the period of the return of the Red Army to the region in 1943-1944. This work attempts to provide an answer to the question of why the population of a provincial city, which endured no major combat, was reduced from about 100,000 residents in 1941 to less than a hundred on the day of return of the Soviets in 1944?Item The Juniper Coast: A Survey of the Medieval Shipwrecks of Novy Svet, Ukraine(2014-06-19) Albertson, John ArthurThis thesis provides an accurate, comprehensive physical context for the extent underwater archaeological excavations in the Bay of Novy Svet, located on the southeast coast of the Crimean Peninsula. In addition, it presents vital new historical context and explores new archaeological assemblages discovered while mapping the 100 x 250m^(2) research site. These include minimal hull remains, concretions, ceramics and an assemblage of anchors and ships equipment dating from antiquity to the modern day. Certain of these may indicate an 11th century wreck site, while others provide probable evidence for seafaring on the bay as early as the foundation of Sudak in 212 A.D. or before. These findings reinforce the work they are built on, and provide improved digital tools for future research. Results are assessed alongside historic and archaeological documentation of medieval and modern activity in the region, including invasive and destructive actions around the Bay of Novy Svet. In addition, the historical record has suggested that a 13th century wreck in the bay may be a Pisan ship burned there by the Genoese after a battle in 1277. While no proof of correlation has been found to date, extent datasets do not preclude the possibility, and support it to some extent. Therefore, this thesis also presents a framework for describing and discussing the 13th century Pisa Ship and its potential actions within historical and maritime landscape contexts. Current research and conservation efforts are presented, hopefully serving as a platform for increasing those efforts locally and internationally in the future.