Faculty & Staff Profiles

Olena Lennon, Ph.D.

Practitioner In Residence

Department of National Security
Division of Government & Public Service
Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice & Forensic Sciences

For the Media

Email Media Relations
Olena Lennon

Education

Ph.D. Educational Leadership & Higher Education with concentrations in Political Science and Qualitative & Quantitative Psychometric Measures, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

M.A. Educational Administration, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

M.A. Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), Horlivka Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages

B.A. English, Horlivka Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages

About Olena

Olena Lennon, Ph.D., is a Practitioner In Residence of National Security at the University of New Haven, where she teaches such courses as the U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy, International Relations, and Comparative Politics. An Eastern Ukraine native, she also serves as a co-editor of an online scholarly forum "Eyes on Donbas: Politics, Places, and People" at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Formerly a Fulbright scholar and most recently a Title VIII Scholar at Woodrow Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute in Washington, D.C., Olena has dedicated her research to domestic and international politics of Ukraine, as well as Eurasian geopolitics and security writ large.

Scholarships & Awards

  • Fulbright Scholar, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2004-2007
  • International Scholar of the Year, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2008
  • Excellence in Teaching Award of the Year, Part-Time Faculty, 2019
  • Title VIII Scholar, Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, May-June 2019

Selected Publications

"Russia's War Against Ukraine: A Wake-Up Call for the West," co-sponsored by Mystic & Noank Library, Otis Library & Museum, Inc, Groton Public Library, Public Library of New London, CT, and Waterford Public Library; March 24, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XhvDYSkCLo

Lennon, Olena (March 21, 2022), "Why Putin Is Scaling Down His Political Aims while Scaling Up the Fight," Focus Ukraine, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/why-putin-scaling-down-his-political-aims-while-scaling-fight

Lennon, O., (January 12, 2022), "The Time Is Right for Ukraine to Revisit the Lessons of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War," PONARS Eurasia, https://www.ponarseurasia.org/the-time-is-right-for-ukraine-to-revisit-the-lessons-of-the-second-nagorno-karabakh-war

Lennon, O., (January 19, 2021), "Ukraine’s Decentralization will Empower the Center, but Not in Ways You Think," Focus Ukraine, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/ukraines-decentralization-will-empower-center-not-ways-you-think

Lennon, O., Sotnyk, O. (June 2020), "Ukraine's Strategic Choices vis-à-vis Occupied Donbas: Striking a Balance between the Possible and the Desirable," Krytyka, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, https://krytyka.com/en/articles/ukraines-strategic-choices-vis-vis-occupied

Lennon, O. Book Review of Paul J. D'Anieri's "Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War" Harvard Ukrainian Studies, The Journal of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, Volume 36 (Number 3–4), 2019 (Pages 512-514). ISBN: 9781108713955

Lennon, O. (November 2019), "Why the Fight for the Hearts and Minds of People in Donbas Remains Urgent Today," Krytyka, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, https://krytyka.com/en/articles/why-fight-hearts-and-minds-people-donbas

Lennon, O. (2019). “Six Reasons the ‘Opposition Platform’ Won in Eastern Ukraine,” Kennan Cable 45, Wilson Center, December 9, 2019, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/kennan-cable-no-45-six-reasons-the-opposition-platform-won-eastern-ukraine

Lennon, O., Adams, G. (2019). "All is quiet on the Russian front: ceasefires and the pursuit of legitimacy by self-proclaimed "republics" in Ukraine" Eurasian Geography and Economics, July 30, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2019.1645032. (Peer-reviewed)

Lennon, O., Becker, A. (2019). "Belarus at a Crossroads: Will the Russia-Ukraine War Make or Break It? An analysis of Belarus’s External Orientation Following the Maidan Revolution" forthcoming in Demokratizatsiya (peer-reviewed), 27 (3), pp. 319-348. (Peer-reviewed)

Lennon, O. (2018). "Documentary review of Peter Entell’s Like Dew in the Sun," Nationalities Papers 2018, 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2018.53. (Peer-reviewed)

Lennon, O. (2016). The Role of Donbas Universities in Reconciliation and Prevention of Future Conflicts in Ukraine. A policy paper written and presented as a part of the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s project "Rimlands, Buffer Zones, and Great Power Rivalry." Published by Columbia University Institute of War and Peace Studies. http://www.siwps.org/research/ukraine-between-russia-and-the-west-buffer-or-flashpoint-2/

Lennon, O. (2016). Ukraine’s Imaginary Patients: Why Health Care Reform is Long Overdue, Fair Observer, January 26, 2016.

Lennon, O., Milakovsky, B. (2015). Is Europe’s Buffer Zone in Ukraine Keeping it Safe? Fair Observer, December 4, 2015. Article named in the list of top 30 articles of 2015 (#21) on Johnson's Russia List, a project of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.

Lennon, O. (2015). Wanted: Competent Foreigners to Work for Ukrainian Government. YaleGlobal, 27 October 2015.

Lennon, O., Laskin, A. The Winners and Losers of anti-Russian Sanctions. Journal of Political Risk, 3(10), August 2015. (Peer-reviewed)

Lennon, O. (2015). No Time to Wait: Why Reconciliation in Ukraine Must (And Can) Happen Now. The National Interest, July 27, 2015.

Lennon, O. (2015). Abandoned: The Kiev Government's Isolation of Eastern Ukrainians. The National Interest, May 20, 2015.

Lennon, O. (2015). Ukrainian Politics Abroad. How the Ukrainian Diaspora Sees the Homeland. Foreign Affairs, March 17, 2015.

Kovtun, O. (2011). International student adaptation to a U.S. college: A mixed methods exploration of the impact of a specialized first-year course at a large Midwestern institution. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 48(3). DOI: 10.2202/1949-6605.6336. (Peer-reviewed)

Kovtun, O., Stick, S. (2009). Ukraine and the Bologna process: A case study of the impact of the Bologna process on Ukrainian state institutions. Higher Education in Europe, 34(1), 91-103. (Peer-reviewed)

Courses Taught

  • PSCI 2222 United States Foreign Policy
  • NSEC 4450 / NSPS 6674 / PSCI 4493 U.S. Foreign & Defense Policy
  • PSCI 2241 International Relations
  • PSCI 4498/NSEC 4456 Conflict Resolution
  • PSCI 1121 American Government and Politics
Related Links Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice & Forensic SciencesM.S. in National SecurityB.S. in Homeland SecurityB.S. in Intelligence AnalysisB.A. in International AffairsB.S. in Security & Defense PolicyMinor in Ukraine, Russia, and Eurasia Studies