Event highlight

Ending the war in Ukraine: Prospects for a UN peacekeeping operation

More than four years after the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the military escalation in Eastern Ukraine, a stable solution to the conflict, let alone sustainable peace, still seems elusive. Negotiations in the so-called Normandy format have stalled and failed to produce meaningful results. The Minsk Agreement is still not being implemented by the parties to the conflict. More recently, a number of politicians and experts in Ukraine, Russia, and other countries have called for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to Donbass. Even if they have different things in mind, the debate could pave the way for de-escalation and trigger slow but meaningful progress toward conflict resolution. Several track two initiatives have been working on proposals how to make such an operation work. This panel discussion explores the political, administrative and military prospects and requirements of a potential peacekeeping operation in Eastern Ukraine.

This event is hosted by the Centre for International Security Policy at the Hertie School.

 

Panelists

Sigmar Gabriel has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2005 and served as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs. (Photo: Maurice Weiss)

H.E. Dr. Andrij Melnyk was appointed Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine to the Federal Republic of Germany in 2014. Before this appointment, he held several appointments at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and also served as the Consul General of Ukraine in Hamburg from 2007 to 2010.

Klaus Mangold is Member of the Board of Trustees, Hertie School; Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Rothschild GmbH; and Chairman of the Supervisory Board, TUI AG. From 2000 until 2010, he was Chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations.

Katja Gloger is an award-winning journalist and author at Stern, focusing on Russia, international politics and security policy. She was also a correspondent for Stern in Moscow and has interviewed Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin. Her most recent publication, Fremde Freunde on German-Russian relations was published in 2017 by Berlin Verlag. (Photo: Hans Juergen Burkard)

Andrei Zagorski is the Head of the Department for Disarmament and Conflict Resolution of the Center for International Security at the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO), and Professor of International Relations at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University).

Words of welcome

Helmut K. Anheier is President of the Hertie School and Professor of Sociology.

Chair

Wolfgang Ischinger is Senior Professor for Security Policy and Diplomatic Practice at the Hertie School and Director of the school’s Centre for International Security Policy (CISP). He has been Chairman of the Munich Security Conference since 2008. From 2006 to 2008, he was Germany’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and from 2001 to 2006, he was Ambassador to the United States.