Seminar on Ukraine: "So Far from God, So Close to Russia" (Aug 1, 12 noon)
So Far from God, So Close to Russia:
The Problem with Being Ukraine
Speaker: Professor Christopher A. Hartwell
August 1, 12:00 PM EST
Place: Constant Hall 2003 (lunch will be provided).
Zoom link: https://odu.zoom.us/j/8143369723
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Ukraine has not been effective in making a successful economic transition since the end of the Soviet Union. However, since 2014 Ukraine has begun to reform, mainly in response to an existential threat from Russia. This talk explores some of the key issues that Ukraine faces in its delayed transition and highlights reforms that will need to be accelerated after the war. Focusing on property rights and the rule of law, it will trace the history of these institutions in Ukraine alongside the country's political development, showing what a post-war Ukraine needs to focus on. It may never be far from Russia geographically, but it can jettison many of its Russian-inspired institutions which it has continued for too long.
Christopher A. Hartwell is a Professor of International Business Policy and the Head of the International Management Institute at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) School of Management and Law, and a Professor of International Management at Kozminski University in Poland. He is the author of Two Roads Diverge: The Transition Experience of Poland and Ukraine (Cambridge University Press, 2016), Institutional Barriers in the Transition to Market: Examining Performance and Divergence in Transition Economies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and Kazakhstan: Snow Leopard at the Crossroads (Routledge, 2023).
