vailsymposium

Sergiy Kudelia’s research has focused on three sub-fields of comparative politics: (1) the onset and dynamics of insurgencies and civil wars; (2) political regimes and regime change; (3) political institutions and institutional design. The geographic focus of his scholarship has been on Ukraine, Russia and the former Soviet Union. He published extensively on various aspects of the armed conflict in Donbas and analyzed both its causes and available conflict-resolution strategies. Dr. Kudelia conducted field research in sixteen towns of Donbas for his upcoming book investigating the town-based patterns of collaboration and resistance in the region at the start of the conflict. Three weeks prior to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, he spoke at the panel of experts where he predicted that the war would begin “imminently” with the escalation of hostilities in Donbas under the pretext of protecting local residents.

Kudelia’s other scholarly contributions explored the conditions for the success of violent protect tactics in ousting autocratic rulers, intra-executive conflicts in semi-presidential systems, party-building in nascent democracies and the relationship between political competition and corruption in democratizing states. His articles appeared in various peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Democracy, Post-Soviet Affairs, Comparative Politics, Nationalities Papers, Problems of Post-Communism, East European Politics and Societies, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Demokratizatsiya and in several edited volumes. His book “The Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Boris” co-authored with Kiron Skinner, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Condoleezza Rice, was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2007.

Prior to coming to Baylor University, Kudelia held teaching and research positions at Johns Hopkins University/SAIS, George Washington University, University of Toronto and National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Ukraine).

In Spring 2022, he  taught a course on contemporary Ukrainian politics at the University of Basel (Switzerland) where he also conducted research as a fellow of URIS program. He gave numerous talks on his current research and the Russian-Ukrainian war, including at the University of Zurich, University of Hamburg, University of St. Gallen, University of Florida and University of California, Berkeley.

Kudelia has been interviewed frequently by leading international media outlets including BBC (UK), Neu Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland), Die Zeit (Germany), Wiener Zeitung (Austria), Information (Denmark), NHK (Japan), Washington Post and Voice of America. He has also consulted US and European government officials and international NGOs on the issues related to Ukraine.