Political Scientist to Discuss Ukraine, Russia, and Post-Cold War Order
Princeton University Professor Mark R. Beissinger, Ph.D., to Speak April 2 at Ohio Wesleyan
Mark R. Beissinger, Ph.D.
DELAWARE, Ohio – The challenges facing post-revolutionary government in Ukraine are “exceedingly large,” states Mark R. Beissinger, Ph.D., the Henry W. Putnam Professor of Politics at Princeton University.
“As the record of other urban civic revolutions attests, without extraordinary leadership and significant incentives from abroad, seemingly democratic revolutions have tended to lead to unstable democratic results, providing a temporary increase in civil and political freedoms, followed by authoritarian backtracking,” Beissinger notes in a Washington Post commentary.
An expert in social movements, revolutions, nationalism, state-building, and imperialism, Beissinger will discuss “Ukraine, Russia, and the End of the Post-Cold War Political Order” at 7 p.m. April 2 in the Benes Rooms of Ohio Wesleyan University’s Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave., Delaware. His free presentation is the university’s 26th annual John Kennard Eddy Memorial Lecture on World Politics.
Beissinger, who also serves as the director of Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, has written five books, including 2014’s “Historical Legacies of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe,” co-edited with fellow Princeton professor Stephen Kotkin, Ph.D.
Beissinger’s book “Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State” earned multiple awards, including the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award presented by the American Political Science Association for the best book published in the United States in the field of government, politics, or international affairs.
His recent writings have explored such issues as nonviolent civil resistance movements, the relationship between nationalism and democracy, the historical legacies of communism, and the changing relationship between violence and revolution over the last century. Learn more about Beissinger at www.princeton.edu/~mbeissin.
Ohio Wesleyan’s John Kennard Eddy Memorial Lecture on World Politics honors the life of student “Jeff” Eddy, who died in an automobile accident in 1988. Learn more about the lecture series and Ohio Wesleyan’s Department of Politics and Government at https://www.owu.edu/academics/departments-programs/department-of-politics-government/.
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers 86 undergraduate majors and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Ohio Wesleyan combines a challenging, internationally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities to connect classroom theory with real-world experience. OWU’s 1,750 students represent 46 U.S. states and territories and 43 countries. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the latest President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.