IV ALL-UKRAINIAN SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL CONFERENCE “POLITICAL PROCESSES OF MODERNITY: GLOBAL AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS”
On October 27-28, 2022, the 4th All-Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Conference “Political Processes of Modernity: Global and Regional Dimensions” was held on the basis of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University. The event was co-organized by the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Scientists of the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, teachers of higher education institutions in Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Uzhgorod, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, Odesa and other cities of Ukraine, as well as students of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University took part in the conference.
The scientific event was opened and moderated by the Head of the Political Science department of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor Vasyl Klymonchuk. Professor V. Klymonchuk emphasized the importance of broad public discussion, critical understanding of modern political processes in their global and regional dimensions, development of proposals and recommendations regarding current problems.
The Vice-Rector for Scientific and Pedagogical Work of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor Serhiy Sharyn addressed the participants of the conference with a welcome speech. He emphasized that the current meeting of scientists is a response to fundamental requests of society and an understanding of the impact of political processes on the regional and global dimensions of politics, on the challenges facing Ukraine and the world in the context of modern events and a full-scale war.
The deputy director for scientific work of the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Oleksandr Mayboroda, who outlined the main scientific directions of the conference, noted the special relevance of the scientific problems brought up for discussion and emphasized the feasibility of further cooperation between scientific institutions in the study of current problems of modern world and Ukrainian politics.
Among the main directions of the conference were:
- Theoretical and methodological approaches to the analysis of political processes;
- Political institutions and processes at the current stage of social development;
- Elections and electoral processes in Ukraine and the countries of Central-Eastern Europe: global and regional dimensions;
- Consolidation of Ukrainian society: ethnopolitical and valuable dimensions;
- Modern system of international relations. Conflicts and criseses of the 21st century;
- Russian-Ukrainian war: prerequisites, causes and course of the war, consequences for Ukraine, the countries of Central-Eastern Europe and the world.
Doctor of Political Sciences, Associate Professor, leading researcher of the Department of Theory and History of Political Science of the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Vyacheslav Yaremchuk delivered the report “Ukrainian society in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war (the first consequences of 2022)” at the plenary session of the conference.
The speaker noted that the Ukrainian society, being at the epicenter of the global conflict, received a deep moral and psychological trauma. However, in the conditions of a real threat of annihilation, Ukrainian society (which was largely expected) proved capable of mobilizing efforts in the fight against the aggressor. According to the speaker, a number of factors contributed to this, including a high level of consolidation of Ukrainians (the unification of society in the name of achieving a common goal, as a decisive basis for the self-preservation of the nation), the establishment of the phenomena of solidarity (the presence of agreed interests, a harmonious combination of social and personal) and unity (as a manifestation of the ethno-national consolidating process, the primacy of the territorial integrity of the country), based on the deep-rooted state, spiritual and cultural traditions of Ukrainians, aware of their uniqueness, continuity and inseparable connection of generations with their genetic roots, unification around a common core, which is the Ukrainian state. The consequence of the first months of the Russian-Ukrainian war was that, despite significant losses, the Ukrainian state and its society became stronger and more united. The radical liberation of Ukrainians from the remnants of hostile ideological stratifications and stereotypes, imperial Russian narratives about the past had a significant impact on both the projection of the formation of the future (including the European vector of development) and the consolidation of the Ukrainian political nation, which must be preserved against the background of the emergence of new realities, probable global and regional challenges and threats.
During Vyacheslav Yaremchuk’s report
The report “Russian-Ukrainian War as a Catalyst of Socio-Political Changes in Ukraine” by Galyna Zelenko, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, was devoted to the problems of socio-political transformations in Ukraine under the influence of the full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine.
The speaker, analyzing the consequences of the large-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, emphasized first of all the significant acceleration of the processes of nation-building. Political scientists compare the development trajectory of transit societies like the Ukrainian one to a square wheel, when a very, very strong push is needed to make it roll to a new edge. Maidans were such impulses in Ukraine. Now such an impetus was given by the war – incomparable in strength with the Maidans, since it is about the survival of the country in principle. What used to take decades is now changing in months or even weeks.
The scientist emphasized that the state of Ukraine turned out to be much stronger than it seemed. Moreover, the national stability of Ukraine, as the war showed, is primarily based on the ability to self-organize. Thus, the latest data of sociological studies indicate that the stage of civic (political) self-identification of Ukraine has passed. The full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine practically completed the processes of forming a political nation and significantly eliminated those socio-political divisions that have always created an identity crisis in Ukraine – religion, language, ethnicity, foreign policy orientations. The tragic realities associated with the full-scale Russian invasion contributed to the acceleration of the formation among Ukrainians of certain monadic communities, united around such stable ideologies as a strong nation, a strong state, a single state language, a common enemy, and protection through integration into the EU and NATO. Such results are currently a stable trend, as Ukrainian society has demonstrated them for the eighth year in a row. The national idea of resisting the war with Russia and national revitalization also became prominent in Ukraine. At the same time, problems of a systemic nature will remain in post-war Ukraine, which relate to the institutional capacity of the state. Although the war surprised us in this matter as well, because the state institutions demonstrated unexpected resilience and capacity. And this indicates significant qualitative changes in the system of political institutions.
During Halyna Zelenko’s report
After the plenary session was over, the conference continued its work in a sectional format. Scientists, teachers, graduate students, master’s students and students gave scientific reports and discussed theoretical and methodological approaches to the analysis of modern political processes, trends and direction of modern political processes, electoral processes in Ukraine and in the countries of Central-Eastern Europe, problems of consolidation of Ukrainian society in the ethno-political and value dimensions, dynamics and prospects for the development of political processes in Ukraine and the world, the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Unfortunately, the work of the conference was affected by the realities of martial law in Ukraine. After a few hours of communication between scientists (discussion of speeches and debates), air alarms were announced in Kyiv and Ivano-Frankivsk, and later the electricity supply was turned off. Despite this, the moderators of the conference managed to bring the scientific event to completion, to formulate scientific and practical recommendations based on its results. Changes to the current format of the scientific and practical conference, which is being held for the fourth year in a row together with the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine at Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University were also proposed. It is planned that the next conference will receive international status.