Odessa Сenter for Nonproliferation became a co-organizer of a round table
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- Published: Monday, 16 May 2016 19:34
On May 4, 2016 a round table "The Ukraine crisis, Budapest Memorandum and the Role of the United States" took place at the National University "Odessa Law Academy". Odessa Center for Nonproliferation became a co-organizer of this event.
The round table was attended by leading Ukrainian experts in the field of security, including Polina Sinovets, the Head of Odessa Center for Nonproliferation, Volodymyr Dubovyk, the Director of Center for International Studies of Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University, Sergiy Fedunyak, a professor of international relations department of Chernivtsi National University, Yuiry Matsiyevsky, the Director of Center for Political Studies and an Associate Professor of National University "Ostroh Academy", Viacheslav Tuliakov, Vice-Rector for International Relations of the National University "Odessa Law Academy", Nataliya Yakubowska, an Associate Professor of international law and international relations depatment, National University "Odessa law Academy", Oleksandr Cheban, a research fellow at Odessa Center for Nonproliferation, Valeriia Lozova, a junior research fellow at Odessa Center for Nonproliferation as well as other researchers from Odessa and Ukraine in the whole. Ambassador Steven Pifer, the Director of the Brookings Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative, Ambassador James Goodby, a senior research fellow at Herbert Hoover Institution and James Holmes Armsted, a former professor at the United States Naval War College gave their speeches via Skype.
The discussion was moderated by Volodymyr Dubovyk, who stressed the crucial practical and scientific relevance of the topics touched at the round table in his speech.
Opening the round table, Polina Sinovets, the Head of Odessa Center for Nonproliferation, stressed the importance of learning the lessons of the Budapest Memorandum for understanding of current situation with global nuclear nonproliferation regime and Ukraine`s role in it. Despite the great importance of nuclear disarmament of Ukraine in the international perspective, she noted the paradoxical negativity of this event for the development of defense reforms in Ukraine. As far as instead of creating powerful conventional forces, Ukraine seems to have basically rejected the reliance on hard power in its own policy at all. And in any case we cannot put the blame on the specifics of the nonproliferation regime, it lies on the shoulders of the state leadership, which regarded the protection of national interests of Ukraine carelessly. This situation has exacerbated feminine tendencies in the strategic culture of Ukraine, depriving the state of its natural will to ensure comprehensive protection of national security. According to Polina Sinovets the round table organized by Odessa Center for Nonproliferation on April 27 as well as the round table in Odessa Law Academy are important events to mark the twentieth anniversary of the nuclear disarmament of Ukraine.
During the discussion the Olexandr Cheban stressed that Ukraine is currently unable to recover its nuclear status and there is no need for this. Ukraine has made the only right choice abandoning nuclear weapons in the 1990s.
Summing up, Ambassador Steven Pifer said that Russia has permanently undermined the trust of its Western partners that it managed to obtain for a short period of time after the Cold War by its actions on Ukraine. In addition, as the practical advice for de-occupation of Crimea former US ambassador to Ukraine advised to build a modern European state, which Crimeans themselves would want to be reintegrated into.