Glenn School students travel to Ukraine

The Parliamentary Development Project (PDP), housed at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, for years has brought officials from Ukraine to observe the workings of democracy in the United States. In June, a group of Ohio State students is making the return trip.

“We’ve always thought, given our project in Ukraine, that it would just create a great opportunity for students both to see a country in transition and also to see how U.S. government efforts to facilitate democracy work,” said Trevor Brown, Glenn School professor and associate project executive for PDP.

Brown and doctoral student Rudy Hightower will lead 10 students on a two-week study tour of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the autonomous region of Crimea. They will depart June 9 and return June 23 for a two-day stay in Washington, D.C., where they will meet with policymakers involved in U.S. development efforts in Ukraine.

Eight graduate students and two undergraduates will make the trip, which Brown described as a “dry run” for what could become a regular Glenn School offering.

Since 1994, PDP has worked with Ukraine’s parliament to develop democratic practices, improve transparency and encourage greater participation from citizens. The project is sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which last year gave the Glenn School an additional $200,000 contract to extend its activities to the regional parliament in Crimea.

“The idea is to give students a background in the mechanics, the nuts and bolts of how this works,” said Brown.

Students will work in teams to research the current state of democracy, development and defense issues in Ukraine. They will prepare and present brief background reports on these topics before the trip at the end of the spring quarter.

In addition to meeting with PDP representatives, students will interact with people involved in and affected by other international efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s government and civil society. They will gather information on behalf of three “client” agencies — the nonprofit democracy watchdog Freedom House, the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s international arm and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

The students will “make an assessment as to whether they are achieving their goals” in Ukraine, said Brown, and then present a final report to agency representatives in Washington.

Their detailed reports and presentations will earn students five academic credit hours for the trip. But in addition to the work, Brown said another objective is to have fun exploring “a part of the world people in the West know very little about.”

Ukraine’s people and culture have reasserted themselves following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the country’s recent history of authoritarianism and evolving relationship with Russia continue to influence its newly democratic government. In addition to strengthening its national government in Kyiv, Ukraine is endeavoring to improve its relationship with Crimea, the majority-Russian Black Sea peninsula that is still home to a Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

In April, controversy over a deal negotiated by Ukraine’s new president Viktor Yanukovych to extend Russia’s lease on the naval base in exchange for cheaper Russian gas led to street protests and egg-throwing and fist fights in Ukraine’s parliament.

This backdrop of tense politics makes Ukraine both an intriguing case study for policy students and a significant player in future relationships among the United States, Russia and Europe.

“That’s why it’s a major focus of the U.S. government,” said Brown.