Articles by Lena Surzhko-Harned

January 31, 2024

Decolonisation in practice: reconceptualising Ukrainian nationalism

Lena Surzhko-Harned

Ukrainians tend to be categorised reductively as either 'bad' ethno-nationalists or 'good' civic democrats. Lena Surzhko-Harned argues this simplistic division is harmful to Ukraine and its defence against the Russian empire, which is eager to manipulate, divide and conquer

Why the 'Kosovo precedent' was a gateway for Russia’s abuse of international law

Lena Surzhko-Harned

The Kosovo war helped consolidate the Responsibility to Protect norm. But Lena Surzhko-Harned and Jiří Nykodým argue that it also created the 'Kosovo precedent' used to undermine international law. Russia has often exploited this narrative to justify its current war in Ukraine

Lena Surzhko-Harned

Associate Teaching Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Public Policy Initiative at Penn State University, Behrend College

Lena is an author of publications dealing with issues of nationalism, identity politics, trade policy, European integration, electoral politics, comparative democratisation, and mass political behaviour in Eastern Europe.

Her 2017 book with Ekaterina Turkina, Post-Soviet Legacies and Conflicting Values in Europe: Generation WhY, examines the within (generational) and between societal conflicts in cultural values influenced by European integration, and lingering soviet legacies in modern Russia and Ukraine.

Lena's current research projects focus on the ideology of Russki Mir and its influence on Russian policy in Ukraine, dynamics of decolonisation in Ukrainian politics and society, politics and religion in Ukraine and Russia, and nationalism and identity in Ukrainian society, particularly among self-described Russian-speakers.

@lenasurzhko

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