Vasili Rukhadze is a Visiting Lecturer of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He specializes in Comparative Politics and International Relations with area focus on the former Soviet Union and post-communist Eastern and Central Europe.
Dr. Rukhadze holds a Ph.D. in political science from Kent State University (2014) and an M.A. degree in political science from the City University of New York (2002). In 2007-2008, he was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, conducting academic research on the prospects of establishing new energy routes from the Caspian Sea basin to the European Union. In 2010, he served as a Chairman of the Georgian Truth Commission, overseeing a large scale research project, from its inception to its completion, about Georgia’s historical experiences under Tsarist and communist rule. Since 2012, he is a Political Analyst at the Washington, D.C. based research and analysis institution, Jamestown Foundation.
Courses
PS 1327 Politics of Revolution
PS 1431 Government and Politics of Russian Federation
PS 1510 Cold War
PS 1511 US Foreign Policy After WW II
PS 1538 Politics of Oil
Education & Training
- PhD, Kent State University, 2014
Representative Publications
"Sovereignty Issues in the Caucasus: Contested Ethnic and National Identities in Chechnya, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia" (With Glen Duerr). Nationalities Affairs, 48: 30-47 (2016).
Reflections From Washington: A Chronological Digest of Georgian Politics in 2012-2017. Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia: Glosa Publishing.(2017).
Tserilebi Amerikidan [The Letters From America]. Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia: Meridiani Publishing. (2017).
Working Papers
"Modern Urban Architecture in the Service of Semi-Authoritarian Regimes: Decoding the Unspoken Political Language in the Post-Soviet Georgia and Kazakhstan." To be Submitted to the Journal of Comparative Politics. (2018)
"The Causes of Post-Mobilization Leadership Change and Continuity: A Comparative Analysis of Post-Color Revolution Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Georgia." (2018).
Research Interests
Regime Changes, Democratization, State-Building Processes, Comparative Political Institutions, Ethnic Conflicts, Politics of Collective Memory
