Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its semi-covert role in the Donbass conflict surprised experts and policymakers alike. Since then, the conflict has increased Western-Russian tensions. Against structural and society-based approaches, the talk argues that regime survival was the main driving force behind the 2014 Ukraine crisis, developing a transferable explanation for conflict onsets between great powers and small neighbors.  

Dr. Jonas J. Driedger is a DAAD Postdoctoral Fellow at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. Previously, he was a Resident Fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies and a Visiting Researcher at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. His research focuses on military and hybrid conflict, deterrence, and security cooperation with a focus on the post-Soviet space.

To attend, please email: resc-webinar@sant.ox.ac.uk