The Splendid School Assembled: Studying and Practicing International Relations in Independent Ukraine

Despite having a considerable community of international relations (IR) scholars, Ukrainian IR sociology remains an underdeveloped field. In particular, the degree of Ukrainian scholars’ integration in the global IR community, favorite theories and methods, and application of scholars’ expertise to policymaking remain uncertain. Based on the TRIP-2017 survey data analysis we discovered that, due to Soviet tradition and partial Westernization, Ukrainian IR scholars tend to espouse realism and constructivism as their preferred IR paradigms; use descriptive methods; conduct area studies researches, and focus on the CEE region and Western Europe. As an academic community, they have little impact on policymaking as they are sidelined by NGOs offering foreign-policy analysis. The divide between the Ukrainian IR field and the global community, plus its loss of prestige domestically, constitute the “double peripheralization” of Ukrainian IR.