Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine After Totalitarianism [Paperback]

Alexander J. Motyl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1993

The collapse of the Soviet Union added a large new country-Ukraine-to the map of Europe. With its endowment of natural resources and skilled population of 52 million, Ukraine can play a major role in European and world affairs. How an independent Ukraine evolves internally and the foreign policies it adopts will have considerable impact on Europe, East and West, and the United States. Alexander J. Motyl, an authority on the post-Soviet nations, examines the painful choices confronting Ukraine. He considers Ukraine's troublesome inheritance from the Soviet Union and discusses ways Ukraine might overcome this legacy to build a modern, democratic, and market-oriented state. Motyl advances an evolutionary approach, one that places equal emphasis on economic reform, the creation of democracy and civil society, state-building, and ethnic peace. He also explores Kiev's relations with Moscow, and suggests what the West should-and should not-do to help Ukraine and the other former republics survive their post-imperial and post-totalitarian challenges.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Motyl, associate director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, has written widely on nationalities issues in the Soviet Union and its successor states. Here he turns his attention to Ukraine, the second largest country in Europe following Russia--which is the largest--in terms of population and larger than France in area, yet all but unknown to most observers in the West. Long considered an appendage of Russia, it achieved independence at the end of 1991. Motyl's thesis on the disolution of the USSR is sophisticated and dynamic, if not completely original, and he provides historical comparisons to illuminate his points. He also makes policy recommendations for the West, underscoring what he sees as a need for gradual reform in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. For academic collections.
- Joseph Par sons, Columbia Coll., Chicago
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations (May 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876091311
• ISBN-13: 978-0876091319
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,674,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alexander Motyl (b. 1953, New York) is a writer, painter, and professor. He is the author of four novels, Whiskey Priest, Who Killed Andrei Warhol, Flippancy, and The Jew Who Was Ukrainian; his poems have appeared in Mayday, Counterexample Poetics, Istanbul Literary Review, Orion Headless, The Battered Suitcase, Red River Review, and New York Quarterly. He has done performances of his fiction and poetry at the Cornelia Street Café and the Bowery Poetry Club in New York. Motyl's artwork has been exhibited in solo and group shows in New York, Philadelphia, and Toronto. He teaches at Rutgers University-Newark and lives in New York. His website is: www.AlexanderMotyl.webs.com.