This paper explores the interrelationships between religious attitudes, ethnic and linguistic identities, and geopolitical preferences in three geopolitical fault-line cities in Eastern Ukraine – Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Dnipro. The research is based on data taken from a survey and the associated descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The findings suggest that the religious divide in Eastern Ukraine does not generate additional division but instead strengthens the existing divide, which is known to be formulated in terms of geopolitical as opposed to language or ethnicity-based categories, although language and ethnicity do have an influence on geopolitical preferences. Moreover, civic-national identity appears to be more relevant than ethnic-national identity to understanding the religious fault-line in Eastern Ukraine.
The war initiated by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in 2022 can be seen as a drastic shock event with unpredictable long-term socio-political consequences at the national, regional and global levels. This study aims to identify the impact of war-related disturbances on the dynamics of social cleavages in Ukraine, in particular the possibility of deepening or diminishing such cleavages or promoting the occurrence of new ones. For decades, the internal partition of Ukraine into East and West has been attributed to national self-identification, linguistic and religious peculiarities and the geopolitical preferences of residents of different regions. Shortly before and after the outbreak of the Russian invasion, fundamental changes in Ukrainian society and domestic politics became evident, some of which can be interpreted as signs of the mitigation of social cleavages. Our findings revealed at least two significant shifts in these ‘old’, traditional cleavages: one occurred after the Revolution of Dignity and the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, and the second one is emerging now, due to the full-scale war on Ukrainian territory against the Ukrainian people. More broadly, this research aims to assess the resilience of social cleavages in the face of a shock event.
Regiony podejmują aktywność międzynarodową określaną jako paradyplomacja. Jest ona podobna do dyplomacji państwa, podlega jego prawu oraz polityce, korzysta z podobnych narzędzi, np. protokołu dyplomatycznego, choć nie jest realizowana przez profesjonalnych dyplomatów. Paradyplomację regionów należy analizować jako źródło nowych stosunków międzynarodowych, a regiony postrzegać jako nowych uczestników życia międzynarodowego. W artykule przedstawiono paradyplomację polskich samorządów szczebla wojewódzkiego i regionów (żupanii) Chorwacji, a w charakterze studium przypadku współpracę województwa warmińsko-mazurskiego z żupanią splicko-dalmatyńską.