NATO MEMBERSHIP FOR UKRAINE: DEBATE

Sponsor: The Kyiv Post

Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Time: 9.30-10.50 AM

Venue: Kiev Institute of International Relations

Ulitsa Mel'nikova 36/1

Moderator: Kyiv Post journalist TBA

Speakers: Anthony T. Salvia, American Institute in Ukraine (5 minutes)

XXX (5 minutes)

Debate: James Jatras, American Institute in Ukraine (20 minutes)

Dr.Taras Kuzio, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto (20 minutes)

Q & A: Media, students and guests (30 minutes)

Total time: 1.2 hours (time allotments subject to change if KIMO officials wants to make welcoming remarks)

Theme: Ukraine and European Security: Priorities for the Next President



The next Ukrainian president will have to set the nation's course in world affairs in a dangerous and shifting international political environment. Russia has made clear to Ukraine that it finds some potential policy moves unacceptable, without specifying how it would respond if Kiev were to adopt such measures, and accuses it of an unfriendly attitude; the United States, which has played an important role in Ukrainian affairs since independence, but especially since the last presidential election in 2004, faces unprecedented foreign policy challenges of its own, remains mired in economic difficulties and faces crucial mid-term elections in 2010. Many Americans feel the US is overextended. Partially as a consequence of this state of affairs, Washington appears keen to seek improved relations with Moscow. As for Europe, it remains deeply and openly skeptical of Ukrainian entry into the European Union anytime soon, although such membership would be a boon to Ukraine's economy and would anchor the nation firmly in the West.

The challenges are great, and so is the need to shed light on Ukraine's place in world as the nation prepares to elect new leadership.

This event, at the Kiev Institute of International Relations (KIMO) of the Kiev National Taras Shevchenko University, Ukraine's leading training ground for diplomats and foreign affairs specialists and practitioners, is intended to do just that. As such, it will feature a debate between qualified Western experts in the these matters.

Anthony Salvia, Director of the American Institute in Ukraine, and XXX will frame the discussion with concise opening statements setting forth their competing visions for Ukraine's foreign policy future.

These statements will be followed by the main event-a forty minutes debate between Dr. Taras Kuzio of the University of Toronto and James Jatras, Deputy Director of the American Institute in Ukraine. Dr. Kuzio is well known in Ukraine and the West for his commentary on and analysis of Ukrainian affairs; Mr. Jatras served in the US Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer and as a senior foreign policy adviser to the Senate Republican Policy Committee. He expertise is in Soviet and post-Soviet affairs.

Students and guests will have a chance to pose questions to the speakers in the Question and Answer session that will follow the debate.