Decentralization, Regional Diversity, and Conflict The Case of Ukraine

This edited volume focuses on the links between the ongoing crisis in and around Ukraine, regional diversity, and the reform of decentralization. It provides in-depth insights into the historical constitution of regional diversity and the evolution of center-periphery relationships in Ukraine, the legal qualification of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, and the role of the decentralization reform in promoting conflict resolution, as well as modernization, democratization and European integration of Ukraine. Particular emphasis lies on the securitization of both regional diversity issues and territorial self-government arrangements in terms of Russia’s support for self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. The volume captures the complexity of contemporary “hybrid” conflicts, involving both internal and external aspects, and the hybridization and securitization of territorial self-governance solutions. It thus provides an important contribution to the debate on territorial self-government and conflict resolution.

1. Introduction: Regional Diversity, Decentralization and Conflict in Ukraine (Maryna Rabinovych and Hanna Shelest).- Part I. Regional Diversity in Ukraine and its Accommodation in Government Policies.- 2. Regionalism in Ukraine: Historic Evolution, Regional Claim-Making and Center-Periphery Conflict Resolution (Oksana Myshlovska).- 3. Navigating Ethnopolitical Disputes: Ukraine’s Constitutional Court in the Tug-of-War over Language (Andrii Nekoliak and Vello Pettai).- 4. Crimean Tatars and the Question of National and Ethnic Belonging in Ukraine (Alina Zubkovych).- Part II. The “Crisis In and Around Ukraine”, Occupied Territories and their Reintegration: the Legal Dimension.- 5. The Reintegration of Donbas into Ukraine Exercised Through the Means of Post-Violence Reconstruction and Accountability. An International Law Perspective (Tomasz Lachowski).- 6. The Domestic Dimension of Defining Occupied Territories and its Value for Conflict Transformation in Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine (Maryna Rabinovych).- Part III. Federalization/Decentralization as a Means of Conflict Resolution. Discursive and Foreign Policy Perspectives.- 7. Three Faces of Federalism in Foreign Policy. Russian and German Approaches to the “Ukraine Crisis” (Nadiia Koval).- 8. The Dark Side of the Decentralization Reform in Ukraine: Deterring or Facilitating Russia-Sponsored Federalism (Jaroslava Barbieri).- Part IV. Decentralization, its Perceptions and the Linkage to Democratization, Modernization and European Integration of Ukraine.- 9. Signs of Progress: Local Democracy Developments in Ukrainian Cities (Aadne Aasland and Oleksii Lyska).- 10. Decentralization and a Risk of Local Elite Capture in Ukraine (Max Bader).- 11. Decentralization Reform: An Effective Vehicle for Modernization and Democratization in Ukraine? (Olga Oleinikova).- 12. Decentralization in Ukraine and “Bottom Up” European Integration (Anne Pintsch).- 13. Conclusion (Maryna Rabinovych and Hanna Shelest).

Hanna Shelest is Member of the Board at the Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism” and Editor-in-chief of UA: Ukraine Analytica. Prior to this, she had served for more than 10 years as Senior Researcher at the National Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Ukraine.

Maryna Rabinovych is a researcher at the Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg, Germany. She will join the Leibniz Science Campus “Eastern Europe as a Global Area” as Post-Doc Fellow.