Globalisation involves complex shifts in the world’s social, political and economic paradigms destined to unhinge consolidated transnational relations and to lay the groundwork for future governance scenarios. A multidisciplinary approach, including the sociological, economic, anthropological, political and technological dimensions, is needed to fully comprehend the complexity and interdependence of these changes. FEEM’s “Economy and Society” Series aims at stimulating and disseminating novel perspectives to interpret the multiple cultural, economic and geostrategic challenges ahead. Capitalising on the international lectures of the Research Programme “Economy and Society”, each volume will propose a different topic, opening the debate to a variety of interpretations and providing the scientific community, decision makers and civil society with the latest theoretical insights in view of a new planetary governance.

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From public riots to the fall of Viktor Yanukovych’s government, from Maidan’s uproar to the escalation in the East: shaped by ages of forced relations with its most powerful neighbour, the recent Ukrainian history suddenly quickened its pace towards an uncertain evolution. Torn apart by ethnic strains and nationalism, the country dramatically became a focal point of the international agenda, the real epicentre of European, United States and Russian negotiations. Far from diplomatic meetings and foreign ministers talks, behind roadblocks and ruins, the battle between the new Ukrainian government and the pro-Russian separatists still enrages. Anatol Lieven, internationally renowned scholar of geostrategic issues and security in Eurasia, analyses the origins of the present crisis and explores what it teaches about the making of Western transnational relations.

ISBN number: 9788890991820

FEEM Press, Economy and Society Series, 3/2014