This diploma thesis deals with the tourism development in the region of Western Ukraine. The good reason for the analysis of the Western Ukraine is the fact that the part of a region (Podkarpatská Rus) belonged to our state territory in a part of our history but an awareness of the tourism potential has not been deeply analysed yet. The main goal of the diploma thesis is to process a tourism development strategy for the Western Ukraine. A partial goal is a categorization of individual destinations of the Western Ukraine in-to the Butler cycle. The initial part contains theoretical frames for this thesis. The Western region of Ukraine is specified in the Methods chapter. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used for analyses. I received important statistical figures during a communication with representative of the State Statistics Committee of the Ukraine. I analyse foreign arrivals flows to the Ukraine and to the Western Ukraine region. Further the diploma thesis is divided into two parts. Firstly I analyse a capacity of the Ukraine tourism. Then I deal with individual Western Ukraine regions. I add the statistical figures to both of these parts. The SWOT analysis supports the elaboration of the tourism development strategy. I define and evaluate the Ukraine development strategy in this...

This study examines how two media sources—one Russian and one Ukrainian—portray Russia and Ukraine before, during, and after the EuroMaidan crisis in Ukraine. Russian-language texts posted between January 2013 and December 2015 on the sites Ukranews.com (a Ukrainian news outlet) and TASS.ru (Russian) were organized in a corpus of over 20,000,000 words. This study analyzes the nouns “Россия” (“Russia”) and “Украина” (“Ukraine”) according to the verbal predicates that attach to either noun. The results demonstrate predictable variation in the agency of the two entities in response to cultural events and contexts. The analysis of the corpus data operationalizes a combined model of agency using Halliday and Matheissen’s (2004) classification of processes, shaped by the animacy of the actor, and Dik’s (1989) States of Affairs Matrix, which prioritizes the actor’s physical effect in space and time. In this study, predicates of “Russia” and “Ukraine” are given numeric scores based on the models. Then, a new method of checking the validity of these models is tested by examining other entities that take the same predicates as Russia and Ukraine. Measurements from discrete time periods reveal how the agency of both entities changed before, during, and after EuroMaidan.

The goal of my Diploma Thesis is to provide future investors, individuals who would like to start their business in Western or Eastern Europe with characteristics of the consumer market in these regions. Since if you start a business in a region with which you are not familiar, it is one of the golden rules to conduct a research in order to understand the political, economic, social environments, the level of the technology development etc. of the chosen countries. There are lots of factors which have to be studied in order to be successful in the market which is new for the company. My Thesis gives the portraits of the modern consumers in the West and East of Europe and obviously, provides with the deep analysis of the economy; geography; demographics; social class; consumer psychographics, religion, lifestyles etc. in the specific regions in the East and West of Europe. I also concentrated my analysis mostly on two countries -- Austria and Ukraine, since they are the bright representatives in their regions. And I gave a deep comparison of the consumer behaviors specifically in these countries. Consequently, after getting acquainted with this work, the interested individuals will be familiar with what to expect from consumer behavior in the regions which I analyzed, which factors to take into consideration when launching their businesses the first time in these parts of Europe.

The European Union (EU) governance is very complex. Also, in order to have an impact on the democratic transformation of national settings in its Eastern Neighbourhood there is a need for the EU to govern more effectively. How can we understand the relations between the EU and countries in its Eastern Neighbourhood? Has the EU regional governance been able to bring positive change by influencing domestic processes including democratic institution-building in the region? What challenges has the EU encountered in its Eastern Neighbourhood and how has it responded to them? Even at times when the EU’s performance is being questioned by policy-makers and in academic literature, the EU retains a strong focus on sectoral and regional policies, along with a consistent presence in neighbouring countries. The six research papers of this thesis examine important aspects of regional development of the EU and its governance of the Eastern Neighbourhood. These analyses determine that the EU’s understanding of the governance of its Eastern Neighbourhood has developed and varied to a substantial degree since introduction of the European Neighbourhood Policy followed by addition of the Eastern Partnership. The papers provide empirical qualitative analysis on the factors shaping EU regional performance and address institutional, political, and cultural challenges that Ukraine and Belarus face in terms of democratization and regional cooperation. In addition, these papers engage with debates on borders and bordering in order to study the neighbourhood transformations through the European Neighbourhood Policy. New priorities, such as border management and a focus on multilateral initiatives under the Eastern Partnership, signalled the continuation of a region-based approach employed by the EU and the recognition of shared values, common traditions, and histories among neighbours in the EU’s shared borderland. / Graduate

We have an opportunity not only to interact with 3D content but also to immerse ourselves in it via Virtual Reality (VR). This work is deeply inspired by my experience as a Ukrainian witnessing the recent turmoil in my homeland. I wanted people around the globe to experience the horrors that are unfolding. The Voice of the People, explores narrative storytelling through VR. Ultimately, the viewer will be able to put on a VR headset and become deeply immersed in the story. With this technology, the user intimately experiences the war and devastation created by Russian occupation first hand. The end of World War II is a critical time in my country’s history. Included in the 3D environment are video segments of those affected by the current Russian occupation; historical themes underscore the narrative and help the viewer understand the recurring aggression by Russia that is part of Ukraine’s history. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis explores the process of the Bologna reform in the Ukrainian higher education system. Bologna is one of the most well-known and influential European projects for cooperation in the field of higher education. It aims to create an internationally competitive European Higher Education Area (EHEA) through a range of such objectives as the adoption of a system of credits, cycles of study process, diploma supplement, quality assurance, qualifications frameworks, student-centred education, lifelong learning and the promotion of student and faculty mobility. Through an in-depth examination of higher education actors and policy instruments in the case of the implementation of Bologna in Ukraine, this thesis aims to a) analyse the process of the Bologna reform in Ukraine; and b) examine Bologna as a case of Europeanisation in the post-Soviet context. The study is qualitative and applies two main methods: interviews with key policy actors and text analysis of selected policy documents. These data are analysed through the perspective of policy learning, with a particular reference to the concept of layering. The findings suggest that the Bologna reform in Ukraine has been primarily developing as an interrelationship between policy continuity and change. On the one hand, the study found that most of the key powerful actors and networks in the country, established before the introduction of Bologna, have retained their prior influence. As a result, Bologna has – to a large extent – simply reproduced established relationships and pre-existing higher education policies. The Ministry of Education and Science has been the primary actor pushing for this kind of policy continuity. On the other hand, Bologna has also been partially changing some aspects of the old higher education instruments and the established relations among the actors. These changes have been taking place due to the involvement of civil sector organisations which increasingly became crucial as policy brokers in the process of this reform. The study suggests that the old practices and innovations in Bologna have been interacting in layering – a gradual messy and creative build-up of minor innovations by different higher education actors in Ukraine. The accumulation of these innovations led to more fundamental changes – the beginning of the emergence of a more shared higher education policy-making in the previously centrally governed Ukraine. These findings shed some light on the broader process of Europeanisation in the post-Soviet context. The Ukrainian case thus suggests that at least in the post-Soviet context, Europeanisation is the process in which change and the continuity are not mutually exclusive, but rather closely interconnected.

O controle sobre recursos naturais como o petróleo e o gás representa um aspecto de fundamental importância no relacionamento entre países. Sendo majoritariamente controlada pelo Estado, o gerenciamento que as National Oil Companies (NOCs) fazem desses recursos possibilita sua utilização como uma ferramenta de política externa. Com o aumento dos preços dos hidrocarbonetos no mercado internacional a partir de 2000, o restabelecimento das NOCs passou a constituir uma nova possibilidade para se projetar poder em âmbito global. Nesse contexto, buscou-se, neste trabalho, analisar a eficácia da atuação da principal NOC russa, a Gazprom, para a política externa de Moscou. Para tanto, foram investigadas as relações da Rússia com quatro países: Alemanha, Ucrânia, China e Turquia. A conclusão é a de que a operacionalização da Gazprom pelo governo russo tem gerado resultados positivos para o país, ainda que tais resultados não alcancem todos os casos. Verificou-se que, em diferentes níveis, Alemanha, China e Turquia têm evitado contrapor-se diretamente a Moscou, sendo a Alemanha o caso mais significativo. A forte dependência alemã do gás natural russo tem mitigado uma postura hostil a Moscou, independentemente do partido que esteja à frente do governo. No caso da China, a dependência dos hidrocarbonetos russos também desempenha um papel importante na relação bilateral, embora outros interesses, ademais de questões energéticas, constituam igualmente fatores de aproximação e convergência. Em relação à Turquia, embora a dependência energética dos recursos russos seja também significativa nesse país, a localização estratégica do território turco tem permitido a Ancara barganhar vantagens econômicos junto a Moscou, abrandando, em certa medida, o poder da Gazprom. A Ucrânia, por sua vez, é um caso claramente dissonante: mesmo com a forte dependência deste país do gás natural russo, a política externa de Kiev tem assumido posturas manifestadamente contrárias aos interesses de Moscou. / Control over natural resources such as oil and gas is an aspect of fundamental importance in the relationship between countries. Being mostly controlled by the state, through National Oil Companies (NOCs), the management of these resources makes it possible for countries to use them as a foreign policy tool. With the increase in the prices of hydrocarbons in the international market since 2000, the reestablishment of NOCs became a new possibility of projecting power at a global level. In this context, the aim of this work is to analyze the effectiveness of the main Russian NOC, Gazprom, for Russian foreign policy. To this end, Russian relations with four countries, Germany, Ukraine, China and Turkey, were investigated. The conclusion is that Gazprom\'s management by Moscow has generated positive results for the country, although such positive results do not cover all cases. It has been found that, at different levels, Germany, China and Turkey have avoided opposing Moscow directly, with Germany being the most significant case. Germany\'s heavy dependence on Russian natural gas helps to mitigate any hostile stance against Moscow, regardless of which party is in office. In the case of China, dependence on Russian hydrocarbons also plays an important role in the bilateral relationship, but other factors, in addition to energy issues, contribute to their approximation and convergence. In the case of Turkey, although dependence on Russian energy is also high, Turkey\'s strategic location has allowed Ankara to bargain with Moscow, softening, to some extent, Gazprom\'s power. Ukraine, in turn, is a clearly a dissonant case: even with a strong dependence on Russian natural gas, Kiev has taken stances that are manifestly contrary to the interests of Moscow.

The following thesis presents an empirical investigation of hybrid war in eastern Ukraine, drawing on the insights from Actor- Network Theory and New Type Wars theory. Taking a different route in studying a complex phenomenon of hybrid war, this study focuses on the social-material networks which constitute the hybrid war. This thesis aims to identify the actors and analyse their interactions at different stages of war. Actor-Network Theory will be used in this research to ask the questions, what role do the non-human actors play in hybrid warfare in eastern Ukraine, and how do they affect the dynamics of war. Highlighting the significance of non-human actors, this thesis aims to contribute to the existing literature on hybrid warfare in eastern Ukraine and thus shed light on the peculiarities of this phenomenon.

Recently the topic of the future of Ukrainian economy has been attracting great attention among economists and politicians. The way how it should develop is widely discussed on the international arena. Economists and politicians cannot reach an agreement to which direction it is better to move for Ukraine. Nowadays a lot of special institutions have been created on both sides: in Ukraine and in Europe. The main goal of those is to control all the processes of transformation to be transparent on all levels; as well as prevent unlikely events. Of course, there are proponents and opponents of the moving to the free trade with the EU as for every global process. Among the young generation it is very clear, that possibilities, which gives us European Union are much more valuable and gainful. Even now, majority of students and researchers seek to apply or acquire some knowledge in European countries. I'm not an exception and for this reason, being a representative of young generation, I will try to determine potential impact on Economy of Ukraine assuming integration to European Union. It is very important to consider both threats and benefits of such processes as they are taking place on very high level. Therefore, in this work it will be considered both contours of development for Economy of Ukraine....

Recently the topic of the future of Ukrainian economy has been attracting great attention among economists and politicians. The way how it should develop is widely discussed on the international arena. Economists and politicians cannot reach an agreement to which direction it is better to move for Ukraine. Nowadays a lot of special institutions has been created on both sides: in Ukraine and in Europe. The main goal of those is to control all the processes of transformation to be transparent on all levels; as well as prevent unlikely events. Of course, there are proponents and opponents of the moving to the free trade with the EU as for every global process. Among the young generation it is very clear, that possibilities, which gives us European Union are much more valuable and gainful. Even now, majority of students, researchers seek to apply their knowledge or gain some knowledge in European countries. I try to determine potential impact on Economy of Ukraine assuming integration to European Union. It is very important to consider both threats and benefits of such processes as they are taking place on very high level. Therefor in this work I will consider both contours of development for Economy of Ukraine. To explore it I have applied the synthetic control method, which gives us opportunity to...