Readers Meet the Author Series to Explore Russia-Ukraine Conflict Through “Seize the City, Undo the State”
Baylor Associate Professor of Political Science, Dr. Serhiy Kudelia, will be in conversation with Dr. Alexandra Chinchilla, Assistant Professor of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at 11:45 a.m CST in the Schumacher Flex Commons of Moody Memorial Library. They will discuss Kudelia’s recent book, “Seize the City, Undo the State: The Inception of Russia’s War on Ukraine.”
Dr. Kudelia’s book dives into the conflict in Eastern Ukraine through the comparison of military strategies in over a dozen towns of Donbas, including two major cities outside of it: Kharkiv and Odesa. Kudelia explains how a small group of Russian agents and local militants succeeded in eliminating state control over the largest and most densely urbanized region of Ukraine but failed to do so elsewhere.
“Control over the Donbas region remains the central obstacle in ongoing peace negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, and the United States,” said Kudelia. “Russia’s role in instigating and escalating the armed conflict in Ukraine in 2014 laid the groundwork for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. I hope that this book helps people understand the human dimension of the conflict, how regional divisions within Ukraine mattered for the start of the conflict, and why these divisions have become less pronounced since then.”
Kudelia earned his Ph.D. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on three fields of comparative politics, primarily in Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Ukraine: The onset and dynamics of insurgencies and civil wars, political regimes and regime change, and political institutions and institutional design. He has been asked to consult for US and European government officials and international NGOs on issues related to Ukraine.
Dr. Alexandra Chinchilla attained her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. Before joining Texas A&M University, she was a Rosenwald Fellow in the U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security and Niehaus Postdoctoral Fellow at The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. Her work focuses on international security within Russia and Eastern Europe. Dr. Chinchilla’s research topics include how powerful states use security, the influence of militaries, political violence, human rights, and much more. Her work has been published in the Journal of Peace Research, International Politics, the International Studies Review, and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.
This event is free and open to the public. The conversation is followed by a question-and-answer session, light refreshments, and a book signing. The Readers Meet the Author Series is presented by the Office of the President and the Office of the Provost and hosted by Baylor Libraries. This event gives students, faculty, staff, and the public an opportunity to gather for discussion and reflection on important ideas.
For more information, visit provost.web.baylor.edu/rma.