MONITORING UKRAINE'S SECURITY GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES (original) (raw)

Supporting Ukraine's Security Sector Reform Mapping Security Sector Assistance Programmes

This Mapping Study seeks to support international engagement on security sector reform in Ukraine by identifying the extent and scope of current rule of law, security sector governance (SSG) and democratic oversight programming. By covering international and regional organisations’ initiatives, as well as national projects, the Study seeks to comprehensively map programmes assisting Ukraine’s democratic institutions, executive, government, independent oversight institutions, civil society, media and the security sector itself. DCAF gratefully acknowledges the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ financial support for the project.

Intelligence and Security Services Reform and Oversight in Ukraine – An Interim Report

2021

Though Ukraine was among the first successor states of the Soviet Union to create a legal framework for the activities of its intelligence and security community, said framework addressed inherited and unreformed structures. Subsequent reform plans have not led to the success desired by Ukraine’s international partners and, we must assume, a majority of the Ukrainian voters and taxpayers. Among the reform demands is also the credible subordination to parliamentary oversight, which, though stipulated by law, has effectively been neutralized by reference to subordination to the President in the same law. Who would want to be controlled by an ever-undecided parliament if a personalized oversight by the President and the expert committee of the National Security and Defence Council is the possible alternative? As a consequence, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) remains subject to much criticism – for the corruption of some of its representatives, for overlapping mandates with other ...

Addressing security risks at the Ukrainian border through best practices on good governance

2016

With the current security crisis in the Ukraine, border security has become a pressing issue. Both the annexation of Crimea and the temporary occupation of the Donbas region represent serious violations of the country's territorial integrity and of the wider international legal order. This book contains 13 presentations delivered during the two-day NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) 'Addressing Security Risks at the Ukrainian Border through Best Practices on Good Governance – Sources and Counter Measures', which took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, in February 2016. The workshop consisted of 5 expert panels devoted to various aspects of building the integrity of the Ukrainian border management agencies to enhance the border security of the eastern flank of NATO. The topics of these panels were: the integrity of the security sector in Ukraine; corruption as a security risk in border management; institutional tools to combat corruption in border management; increasing preparedness for cross-border crises; and bilateral and multilateral dimensions of international cooperation to enhance the integrity of border management agencies.

Key Actors, Institutions and Decision-making in Security Policy in Central and Eastern Europe: Ukraine

Foreign and Security Policy Institutions in Central and Eastern Europe, 2020

My aim in this chapter is to achieve a better understanding of the decision-making process in Ukraine’s security policy. Ukraine’s situation as a post-communist state has left this country with the legacy burden of Soviet and imperial Russian political processes and institutions, which was far from the practices in NATO and EU member states. Its own traditions were very latent. As Ukraine became independent with the USSR breakup, it created all institutions anew, but it was replicating quasi-Soviet security architecture, yet lacking the imperial resources. While Ukraine’s politics was until recently the bargaining of oligarchic elites, they were virtually sharing the neglect of the importance of the security sector development, leading to its degradation. At the same time, the society and the establishment were drifting away from Russia and integrating with NATO. The degradation of security institutions led to tremendous difficulties in resisting the Russian aggression. Yet, the societal resilience amidst a seemingly “chaotic” formal institutional environment has supported the resistance to the aggressor and is fuelling the Security Sector Reform in Ukraine.

UKRAINE'S SECURITY OPTIONS: Time for Strategic Choices, Smart Partnerships, and Comprehensive Reforms

The conclusions and next steps to emerge from the NATO Warsaw Summit (8-9 July 2016) will be closely watched in Ukraine. Although Ukraine has benefited neither from direct military support nor the supply of weapons from NATO, the assistance of NATO member states in the transformation of the security sector in Ukraine has been indispensable. A study from the perspective of Ukraine's security challenges is the latest paper to complement the overview study, Security Alert on the EU's Doorstep: Strategies for Strengthening Security in the Eastern Partnership Countries, published by the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development/CIPDD (Georgia) and presented at a roundtable event hosted by the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) in Warsaw on 21 June 2016

Ukraine’s Security Problem: in Search for a solution

Wschód Europy. Studia humanistyczno-społeczne

Independent Ukraine will soon turn 30, but the country in the heart of Europe cannot boast a predictable and stable security position. The conflict with Russia after the regime change in 2014 proved, that a prolonged conventional war in Europe is still a probability. In order to install a durable peace, the all-European security arrangement shall have no low-profile security positions of those European countries, which do not enjoy membership in military unions. The Cold-war legacy of perception of security as a divisible notion is a contradiction to the idea of security for Europe. As long as there are divergences in the level of security, there would be a temptation to test the opponent’s readiness and strength on the territory of a weaker country. This is what happened in Georgia in 2008 and has been happening in Ukraine since 2014. In search for a solution, a special attention shall be paid to the issues of status and perception of security. For a small power, which is not a mem...

Mission Accomplishable? Audit of the EU efforts in reforming Ukraine's Civilian Security Sector. Institute of World Policy, Kyiv (2017)

This policy brief provides the key findings from the paper «Assessing the EU's conflict prevention and peacebuilding interventions in Ukraine»1, published as a part of WOSCAP. The paper was based on the interviews conducted from June to September 2016 with the EUAM, its partners in Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine and the EU Delegation to Ukraine. This brief is an abridged version of the original paper but it also contains additional information, which was collected by the author during interviews in Brussels in October 2016 and in January 2017.

Assessing Domestic Security Challenges in Post-Maidan Ukraine: Two Critical Dimensions

Ukraine after Maidan: Revisiting Domestic and Regional Security, 2018

This chapter examines post-Maidan Ukraine and its domestic security challenges through the dual lens of nation-building and governmental reform. It concludes that while Ukraine would be best served by implementing and adhering to an inclusive (i.e., civic) conception of nationhood, the real challenge faced by Kyiv currently is to reform its governing institutions.