[fblike]
For the last two months demonstrations have been waged against the Ukrainian government of Victor Yanukovych. Yanukovych, who was elected to the presidency in 2010, triggered the protests by turning down an association agreement with the European Union (EU). The protests have only grown larger since Yanukovych’s governing party pushed through a controversial anti-protest law that stifled nearly all forms of free speech and to date, at least six people have died in clashes between protesters and security officials. Geopolitical analysts see Ukraine as a diplomatic battleground between the West and Russia and Ukraine’s political problems often pit the EU and the United States against Russia and its president Vladimir Putin. This means that questions about Ukraine often appear in rounds about Europe and American foreign policy over the course of a season and the current unrest in Ukraine makes it very likely that you could see a question about it at your state tournament.
This topic brief will provide essential details that you need to know about Ukraine when analyzing its politics, break down the causes and course of the unrest plaguing the country, and lay out some of the policy options present to Ukraine’s existing leadership, its political opposition, and international actors.
Readers are also encouraged to use the links below and in the related R&D to bolster their files about this topic.
On January 5th, Bangladesh held parliamentary elections that were marred by a widespread opposition party boycott and violence against supporters of Bangladesh’s governing Awami League and the country’s Hindu minority. The international community condemned the violence and has urged the Awami League to reach a political agreement with its main rival, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) so that new elections can be held to create a legitimate government. Thus far, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has shown little willingness to compromise with the opposition. Bangladesh has been one of the global economic success stories since 1990 and has successfully reduced levels of poverty through international trade agreements. However, the recent political violence could ruin the country’s international image, its economic progress, and make it a center for Islamic extremism.
Last week, on December 29th and 30th, two suicide bombings in Volgograd, a Southern Russian city formerly known as Stalingrad, killed at least thirty-four people and sent at least fifty others to the hospital. The town of Volgograd is located 400 miles from Sochi, where next month’s Winter Olympics will be held. Although no group has taken responsibility for the attacks as of the time of this brief, Russian security forces and international experts believe that the suicide attacks are listen to terrorist groups in the North Caucasus region of Russia, whose Muslim population has long sought self-government. Considering that Doku Umarov, a Chechen terrorist leader, proclaimed in July that he wanted to disrupt the Olympics, there are concerns in the international community that the Sochi Olympics would become a 2014 version of the 1972 Munich Games, which were marred by the murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also facing international condemnation for his nation’s policies regarding homosexuals and the gradual erosion of democratic safeguards that were put in place after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Due to these issues, it would not be surprising to encounter questions at tournaments over the next six weeks about the Sochi Olympics and whether Russia is capable of protecting the athletes and tourists attending the event and how it should respond to international criticisms of its domestic policies.
It has been a very tumultuous year in Venezuelan politics. In March Hugo Chavez, who governed the country for fourteen years and attempted to create a vibrant socialist movement in Latin America called Bolivarian Socialism, died of cancer and his successor Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver and union activist, barely won the presidency in a disputed April election. In the midst of high crime rates and poor economic problems, Venezuela held municipal elections for 337 mayoral seats and 2,435 city council officials on December 8th. The opposition, named the Democratic Unity alliance (MUD), called for voters to reject members of Maduro’s Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and turned the election into a national referendum. The election result ended up mixed, as PSUV won a higher percentage of ballots cast for its candidates, winning 49-43%, but the MUD won control of five of the country’s most populous cities, which include the capital city of Caracas. The next round of national elections are not scheduled until 2015 and the opposition are hoping to recall Maduro from office by 2016. However, the immediate result of the municipal elections may give Maduro some breathing room to consolidate his grip on power and handle Venezuela’s looming economic problems, which could impair the advancement of Bolivarian Socialism next year.