War in Ukraine and the Future of Europe
25 April 2022, 5:00 pm–6:30 pm
![A girl holding a poster 'Stop Putin, stop war' at the antiwar protests](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees/sites/ssees/files/styles/large_image/public/events/ukraine_europe.png?itok=IBtdubcI)
Join an online panel debate, co-hosted by the European Institute and UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), to consider the implications of war in Ukraine for the future of European society, security and integration.
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
SSEES
"Europe will be forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises" – Jean Monnet
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has brought devastation to the country, mounting casualties and massive displacement of civilians. The conflict, itself bound up with Ukraine’s turn away from Russia toward a European future, has also transformed Europe irrevocably and brought to an end the post-Cold War era. Up to now, Europe’s response has been one of unexpected unity, from wide-ranging economic sanctions against Russia to the EU’s decision to grant temporary visa-free protection to Ukrainians fleeing the fighting.
The war has also upended previous policy assumptions, prompting a historic shift in Germany’s foreign, defence and energy policies, a more open approach to (Ukrainian) refugees in Central and Eastern Europe, closer cooperation between the EU and the UK, and a Ukraine determined eventually to accede to the European Union.
However, the conflict raises profound questions about the future of Europe. To what extent was this conflict foreseeable, and what lessons does it hold for Europe’s future role in the world? How might the war develop and how can Europe prepare for all scenarios, including escalation? Are Europeans doing enough and to what extent will the solidarity displayed in the early stages of this crisis prove sustainable, particularly as the economic fall-out of the war begins to bite? Will the crisis offer an opportunity to revitalise the European project? If so, according to whose vision? If not, what alternative futures might we face?
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
About the Speakers
The Rt Hon Sir David Lidington KCB CBE
Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) at Chair
David Lidington served in the House of Commons for nearly 28 years, including more than nine years as a Minister in the governments led by David Cameron and Theresa May.
In government he was successively Minister for Europe at the Foreign Office, Leader of the House of Commons, Justice Secretary, and Minister for the Cabinet Office, in which role he was also deputy to Prime Minister May, including taking her place at Prime Minister’s Questions when she was absent. He was a member of the UK’s National Security Council and has represented the UK at the EU, NATO, the UN Security Council and other international gatherings.
David is now Chair of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the UK’s leading security and defence policy. He is the UK Chair of the Koenigswinter Conference (UK/Germany) and the Aurora Forum (UK/Nordics and Baltics).
More about The Rt Hon Sir David Lidington KCB CBEProfessor Andrew Wilson
Professor of Ukrainian Studies at UCL School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (SSEES)
Andrew Wilson is Professor in Ukrainian Studies at University College London and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
His book Ukraine Crisis: What the West Needs to Know was published by Yale in October 2014. He has worked extensively on the comparative politics of the post-Soviet states since 1990. His other books include Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship (2011), The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (Third edition, 2009), Ukraine’s Orange Revolution (2005) and Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World (2005).
A new edition of Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship was published by Yale University Press in 2021.
More about Professor Andrew WilsonGeorgina Wright
Senior Fellow and Director of the Europe Program at Institut Montaigne
Georgina Wright is Senior Fellow and Director of Institut Montaigne’s Europe Program. She is also a Visiting Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Britain and Europe at the University of Surrey.
Before joining Institut Montaigne, she was senior researcher at the Institute for Government (2019-2020) and research associate at Chatham House (2014-2018). She has also worked for the European Commission and NATO in Brussels.
Georgina regularly represents Institut Montaigne on national and international news media, and has written widely for foreign policy outlets. She studied at the University of Edinburgh and the College of Europe (Bruges).
Dr Rosa Balfour
Director at Carnegie Europe
Rosa Balfour is director of Carnegie Europe. Her fields of expertise include European politics, institutions, and foreign and security policy. Her current research focuses on the relationship between domestic politics and Europe’s global role.
She has researched and published widely for academia, think tanks, and the international press on issues relating to European politics and international relations, especially on the Mediterranean region, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, EU enlargement, international support for civil society, and human rights and democracy.
Balfour is also a member of the steering committee of Women in International Security Brussels (WIIS-Brussels) and an associate fellow at LSE IDEAS. In 2018 and 2019, she was awarded a fellowship on the Europe’s Futures program at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. Since 2021, she is also an honorary patron of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES).
Prior to joining Carnegie Europe, Balfour was a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She was also director of the Europe in the World program at the European Policy Centre in Brussels and has worked as a researcher in Rome and London.
(Chair) Dr Olesya Khromeychuk
Director at Ukrainian Institute London
Olesya Khromeychuk is a historian of 20th century East-Central Europe, specialising in Ukrainian history. She has a PhD in History from University College London. Olesya has previously taught at King’s College London, the University of East Anglia, University College London and the University of Cambridge.
She also runs a theatre company, Molodyi Teatr London, that stages documentary pieces exploring urgent social and political themes. Originally from Lviv, Olesya moved to the UK in 2000, since when she has been actively engaged in the life of the Ukrainian community in London and beyond. She is the author of ‘Undetermined’ Ukrainians. Post-War Narratives of the Waffen SS ‘Galicia’ Division (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2013) and A Loss. The Story of a Dead Soldier Told by His Sister (Stuttgart: ibidem, 2021).
More about (Chair) Dr Olesya Khromeychuk