National Resilience to Protracted Violence in Ukraine

Authors

Karina V. Korostelina, George Mason UniversityFollow

Abstract

This paper concentrates on the production of power of the Ukrainian nation, that not only deals with continuous violence within the nation, but also develops national strength to address this violence. This paper aims to explore how the Ukrainian nation develops resilience to protracted violence as a form of transformative power and what factors contribute or impede this process. The paper defines resilience as a form of power that enhances the capacity of a national community to heal from trauma, effectively resists perpetrators of violence, and positively transform intergroup relations to remove communities from contexts of chronic violence and war. Based on semi-structured interviews with twenty-six respondents and a phenomenological analysis of data, this paper shows that effective practices of resilience developed by the national community of Ukraine, including volunteerism, a critical approach to history, and dialogue, not only aid Ukrainians in the adaptation to the chronic violence but also in the transformation of the nature and the impact of the violence on the national community. At the same time, these practices not only utilize external and internal resources but shape the societal capacities and the international interventions. Finally, these practices also alter visions of the society and dynamics of relations between power agents.

Author Bio(s)

Karina V. Korostelina is Professor at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University and Director of the Program on History, Memory and Conflict. She has served as a Fulbright New Century Scholar, Rockefeller Writing Fellow, Fellow at the Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Institute for Advanced Studies at Waseda University, Northeast Asia Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a visiting scholar at the Central European University. Her scholarship has been supported by 40 grants. The results of her research have been presented at numerous international conferences and in more than 90 articles and chapters. She is an author or editor of 16 books, including Social Identity and Conflict: Structure, Dynamic and Implications (2007), History Education in the Formation of Social Identity: Toward a Culture of Peace (2013), Constructing Narrative of Identity and Power (2013), International Insult: How Offence Contribute to Conflict (2014), and Trump Effect (2016).

Keywords

power, resilience, nation, violence, Ukraine

Publication Date

11-2020

DOI

10.46743/1082-7307/2020.1689

Recommended Citation

Korostelina, Karina V. (2020) "National Resilience to Protracted Violence in Ukraine," Peace and Conflict Studies: Vol. 27: No. 2, Article 4.
DOI: 10.46743/1082-7307/2020.1689
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/pcs/vol27/iss2/4