Political Science in Canada on Post-Independence Ukraine

Abstract

When Ukraine became an independent state, Canada’s political science community, and the country’s Ukrainian studies infrastructure, generally lacked the expertise to effectively analyze the ensuing political changes in Ukraine. Over the years that followed there has been a growing awareness of the importance of studying politics in Ukraine, and a realization that greater efforts should be made to infuse the traditional area studies approach, which dominated studies of Ukraine in the past, with greater methodological rigour, and to situate political developments in Ukraine within a broad comparative context. As a result, Canadian academics are now in a much stronger position to contribute to the study of politics in Ukraine. There is, however, much room for improvement.