The main argument presented by Jesse Driscoll is that the Ukrainian government faces the so-called commitment problem. The PONARS website publishes memos, blogs, and discussions dedicated to most pressing issues in the region. PONARS Eurasia is an influential network of over 125 academics, mainly from North America and post-Soviet Eurasia who study post-Soviet politics and economics. We believe that the arguments presented in his memo are detached from empirical reality and thus extremely harmful for both peace-building in Ukraine and sustainable international relationships in the region. His book “Warlords and Coalition Politics in Post-Soviet States” is focused on conflicts in Georgia and Tajikistan. Jesse Driscoll is an associate professor of political science and serves as chair of the Global Leadership Institute at the School of Global Policy and Strategy. In Driscoll’s view, calling the conflict in Ukraine a civil war should be a prerequisite for free and fair elections in the Donbas (Donetsk and Luhansk regions) and the ultimate implementation of the Minsk Agreements. For example, a respectful political scientist Jesse Driscoll published his policy memo on the website of PONARS Eurasia where he argues that we should consider accepting the terminology of “civil war” for Ukraine. We are grateful to PONARS Eurasia for publishing the short memo and we hope to engage international and local researchers in a discussion about narratives of conflict and reconciliation.Īlthough there is a consensus among international organizations that the conflict in Ukraine is both international and non-international (see more details about this terminology in the text below), some intellectuals and researchers keep falling for the Russian narratives of “the civil war in Ukraine”. Any errors, textual or conceptual, belong to authors of this text. PONARS is not responsible for any changes in this current extended version of the text. A short version of this text was published on PONARS Eurasia.

Uppsalla armed conflict database