Archives: Новини

IWP Expert Spoke at the “Ukraine – Two Years after Maidan” Conference in Budapest

IWP expert, Ivan Medynskyi, participated in the panel discussion entitled “Ukraine – Two Years after Maidan” at Corvinus University (Budapest, Hungary).On February 24th, 2016, Embassies of Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States jointly organized a panel discussion on the challenges that Ukraine faces two years after the Revolution of the Dignity.

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Hosted by the Youth Wing of the Hungarian Foreign Affairs Society at Corvinus University, it was a final part of the “Focus On Ukraine” series of events held in Budapest.

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Photos: UK Embassy in Hungary

During the engaging exchange of ideas, panelists agreed that political stability and peace process are vital for conducting structural reforms in Ukraine.

Ivan Medynskyi, Research Fellow at the Institute of World Policy emphasized the role of civil society in catalyzing the process of reforms in Ukraine, challenges of the Minsk processes, and the importance of European unity in supporting Ukraine.

IWP Took Part in “NATO’s Neighborhood: Stability Generation” Conference

On February 22, 2016, The Institute of World Policy helped to organize the GMF conference titled “NATO’s Neighborhood: Stability Generation” in Tbilisi, Georgia.The senior-level workshop was held by the GMF Warsaw office also with support from the government of Canada, and Foreign Policy Association, Moldova.

There were three panels. The discussion of the first panel “Building Resilience: Lessons Learned and Next Steps for NATO”. Panelists from various countries provided perspectives on each of their respective government’s role in NATO, current NATO strategies and future recommendations that should be undertaken by the Alliance.
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Kateryna Zarembo, Deputy Director of the IWP, delivered her remarks “Ukraine and Information Warfare: Lessons for NATO” at the second panel titled “Combating Hybrid Warfare: Cases of Russian Desinformation and Propaganda”. The participants discussed the challenges posed by hybrid warfare, and possible ways to counter disinformation in Russian-speaking diasporas, where it plays as a soft power tool.

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Photos: the GMF
The third and final panel “The Black Sea Regional Dynamics” was focused on the Black Sea region and the most important policy and security issues its countries currently face.

Director of the IWP met with the leaders of Dutch D66 party

Director of the IWP Alyona Getmanchuk met with the leaders of Dutch D66 party. This is the only political party in the Netherlands that officially and openly supports Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the EU on the referendum.During the meeting, Director of the IWP, along with other Ukrainian experts, discussed the ways to strengthen the campaign in support for Ukraine. Among those who visited Ukraine to “recharge” with facts and arguments was Alexander Pechtold, leader of the D66 parliamentary faction in the House of Representatives.

As a reminder, the referendum on the Association Agreement with Ukraine will be held in the Netherlands on April 6th.
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Read more about the meeting and the situation on the eve of the referendum in the blog post by Alyona Getmanchuk “Dutch referendum: less amateur activities, more ‘normal people.”

The visit of Dutch politicians to Ukraine has been organized by German Naumann Foundation.

Media Club “Ukrainian Issue in the US Presidential Campaign”

The Institute of World Policy held a Media Club “Ukrainian Issue in the US Presidential Campaign” on February 18, 2016.{3}
Speakers:

Ivan Medynskyi, PhD, Research Fellow at the IWP
Dr. Kateryna Smagliy, Director of the Kennan Institute’s Kyiv Office
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The event was organized within the IWP’s project “New European Policy: Filling the Awareness Gap”. This project is carried out within the National Initiatives to Enhance Reforms (UNITER) project, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Pact in Ukraine.

Public Debate “Conflict Settlement Practices Around the World. Lessons for Ukraine”

The Institute of World Policy held a public debate titled “Conflict Settlement Practices around the World. Lessons for Ukraine” on February 11, 2016.IWP experts examined the global experience of local conflicts in order to determine the best practices and develop recommen­dations for Ukraine regarding security and political aspects of conflict set­tlement in Eastern regions. In particular, the IWP’s experts have analyzed 10 cases of conflict settlement around the world.

At the event IWP experts discussed these recommendations with Ukraine’s representatives in the Trilateral Contact Group, Ukrainian and foreign diplomats, and experts.

To download the full text click here.
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Kateryna Zarembo, Deputy Director of the Institute of World Policy
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Roman Bezsmertny, Ukraine’s representative to the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group
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Iryna Gerashchenko, Ukraine’s representative to the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group
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Oleksij Makeyev, Director of the Department for Policy and Communications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
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Alyona Getmanchuk, Director of the Institute of World Policy
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The event was organized within the project “Ukrainian Think Tank Development Initiative”, operated by the International Renaissance Foundation in partnership with the Think Tank Fund (TTF), and funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine (SIDA).

Experts from Germany and Spain explained the perception of Ukraine in their countries

On February 8-9, the Institute of World Policy organized a visit of experts from Germany and Spain to Kyiv to explain Ukrainian opinion leaders the specifics of information activities in the EU member states.Among the visitors were Ulrich Speck, senior research fellow at the Transatlantic Academy of Washington, and Nicolas de Pedro, senior research fellow at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB).

European experts met with Ukrainian diplomats, deputies, government officials, experts, journalists, and civil society activists.

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The first meeting was attended by representatives of the International Renaissance Foundation Olexandr Sushko, Yevhen Bystrytsky, Taras Kachka, Inna Pidluska, and Dmytro Shulga.

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The meeting with Ostap Semerak, First Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for European Integration, and Maria Ionova, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for European Integration.

{1}The meeting with Dmytro Kuleba, Ambassador at Large of the MFA of Ukraine.

{3}The meeting with Natalia Popovych, co-founder of Ukrainian Crisis Media Center, Serhiy Sydorenko, editor of ”Yevropeyska Pravda,” and Tetiana Oharkova, journalist at “Hromadske TV.”

In addition to those meetings, held in the “off the record” format, Ulrich Speck and Nicolas de Pedro attended the public discussion “Ukraine-Germany: How to Turn Situational Partnership into Priority One” organized by the IWP on February 9, in order to ensure the most frank conversation. During that event, Alyona Getmanchuk, Director of the IWP, and Sergiy Solodkyy, Deputy Director of the IWP, presented their research on Ukrainian-German relations.

{2}In his speech, Ulrich Speck voiced his recommendations for strengthening Ukrainian-German cooperation. In particular, the expert advised the Ukrainian side not to focus on the Russian factor and formulate their own agenda in relations with Germany.
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In March, another visit is scheduled for two experts from the EU member states, who developed recommendations for strengthening the position of Ukraine in the fight against Russian propaganda in the EU.

This visit has been organized within the project “Working Visit of Foreign Experts to Kyiv to Dispel the Myths about Ukraine in the European Union.” This initiative is implemented within the “Initiative for Development of Ukrainian Think Tanks” project by International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) in cooperation with the Think Tank Fund (TTF), with the financial support of the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine (SIDA).

Public Debate: “Ukraine-Germany: How to Turn Situational Partnership into Priority One”

On February 9, 2016 the Institute of World Policy held a public debate: “Ukraine-Germany: How to Turn Situational Partnership into Priority One”.At the event Alyona Getmanchuk, Director of the IWP, and Sergiy Solodkyy, First Deputy Director of the IWP, presented their research on Ukrainian-German relations with the same title.

To download the full text of publication.

The analysis is a part of IWP new ambitious initiative “Ukraine’s Foreign Policy Audit” that will cover Ukraine’s relations with its strategic partners. In the end of the project the IWP will prepare concrete recommendations to revised Ukraine’s Foreign Policy Strategy.
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Ulrich Speck, Senior Fellow of the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, Alyona Getmanchuk, Director of the IWP, and Wolfgang Bindseil, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany

Ulrich Speck:
Today Ukraine-Germany relations have its momentum as never before thanks to the Euromaidan. There is a sense in Germany that Ukraine is changing and moving ahead from its post-Soviet mores. Ukraine should do everything to strengthen this relationship. Berlin is a key player on the European level for that and also on the bilateral level – both elements are important.
I would not recommend tonot focusing too much on NATO and on the EU; it would be great to have EU membership as a “carrot”, something that gives you a goal and would help very much with investment, people would start to trust that Ukraine will look like Poland in 10 or 20 years but this “carrot” is not available, so you need to develop the political will to reforms from the inside.
And I would rather not look at NATO as something one day should come and save you. I would rather think about defense. It will be useful for you to be able to defend your borders. Defense is something that every state needs, so Ukraine should think more about defense and reforms, than about NATO and the EU. And Germany can help with it.
I would you recommend not to focus too much on Russia. I think it is much more important to tell your own story and do non’t link yourself always to Russia, so the German-Ukrainian relations should be on the map of German-Ukrainian relations as a country, not just in connection with German-Russian relation.
Ukraine has many stories to tell. Euromaidan is an amazing story. Ukraine is a beautiful country, Kyiv is a beautiful city, but spending some time here I really have the feeling that Kyiv is in the shadow but it deserves to be among the main European capitals. This country must connect much more with the West, and Germany I think is ready to do more. And I support the idea of building relations on the level of societies, lands, partnership with cities, exchange programs, anything that will bring this country closer to German society. And also culture., Wwhy not to open the House of Ukrainian culture in the middle of Berlin? So there are a lot of can be done.
What is the risk? The risk is that if Ukraine is not going ahead with reforms there would be a lot of disappointment. I do non’t think that Germany would go back to the old relationship with Russia, it is clearly understanding that Russia does no’t exist; Germany would like to see modern Russia, that is a part of European house,a real partner. Now we see that Russia is or can be dangerous and not ready to be responsible stakeholder in international system. , So I do non’t think that Germany can return to the «Russia first» policy. But there is a risk that Ukraine will not use its opportunities.
Two remarks:
1. I do non’t think that refugee crisis will lead to increase of pro-Russian attitude, because everybody sees what Russia is doing in Syria. So people will see that Russia is not helpful.
2. I do non’t think that German foreign policy is determined by business. Basically German business supports Markel’s line on sanctions. Germany’s interest to Russia has very much decreased very much. The main driver of German policy towards Russia is a security.

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Serhiy Taruta, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Сhairman of the Interparliamentary Cooperation between the Verkhovna Rada and the Bundestag
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Vasyl Khymynets, Director of the First European Directorate Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
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Alexander Markus, Delegate of German Economy in Ukraine
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The event was organized within the IWP’s project “New European Policy: Filling the Awareness Gap”. This project is carried out within the National Initiatives to Enhance Reforms (UNITER) project, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Pact in Ukraine.

IWP has been recognized among the leading think tanks of Central and Eastern Europe

The Institute of World Policy has been included into the list of leading think tanks of Central and Eastern Europe (The Think Tank Index).The Think Tank Index rating is a global study of activities of the leading think tanks, conducted within the framework of The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program by the University of Pennsylvania.

The global rating has been presented this year, on January 27-28 in over 60 cities on all continents. 96 think tanks around the world are partners of this Program. In Ukraine, the Razumkov Centre has become a partner of this Program for second year in a row.

According to this study, there are 6,846 think tanks in the world, and 47 of them are located in Ukraine.

The global top ten of think tanks lists organizations from the US, the UK and Belgium. The best think tank of Central and Eastern Europe is the Polish Institute of International Affairs.

Overall, this rating includes 11 Ukrainian think tanks.