Ukraine After Maidan: Revisiting Domestic and Regional Security by George Soroka & Tomasz Stepniewski

Author:George Soroka & Tomasz Stepniewski [Soroka, George & Stepniewski, Tomasz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783838210759
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 36928392
Publisher: Ibidem Press
Published: 2018-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

State and National Identity: Moving Forward

Ukraine’s domestic security is inseparable from its nation-building and stateness, but how to facilitate the former and strengthen the latter? Two pathways are available: repress pluralism and accentuate ethno-nationalism or accommodate pluralism through emphasizing a civic concept of socio-political belonging. The preliminary evidence post-Maidan is intriguing in this regard, as it suggests Ukraine’s linguistic, mnemonic and religious allegiances have shifted toward what were previously regarded as moderately ethno-nationalist positions. Simultaneously, Ukraine’s citizens appear to have become more accepting of a civic conception of nationhood. In effect, the former has served to establish more resilient outward-facing borders, while the latter has diversified the inward-looking sense of what it means to be Ukrainian. This is a highly positive development if it proves sustainable, as Ukraine’s deep and complicated historical ties to Russia and sizable ethnic Russian population, along with the long (and lightly fortified) border it shares with its larger neighbor, argue for an ethno-nationally based state being sub-optimal for security. Note, though, that cultivating a Ukrainian state predicated on civic principles does not necessitate reconciling the differences that exist between the various groups that reside on its territory; what it does demand is avoiding the political activation of these differences as a source of inter-group competition. It is not the presence of diversity, but rather the degree to which it is tolerated, that matters. Likewise, embracing a primarily civic conception of nationhood does not preclude acknowledging the Ukrainian language and culture as primus inter pares.47 The latter is even desirable from the perspective of reinforcing symbolic boundaries between Ukraine and Russia.

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