The Russia-Ukraine War: A Good Case Study for Students to Learn and Apply the Critical Juncture Framework
By Daniel Stockemer, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa
In this article, I argue that critical junctures – defined as sudden turning points in the historic trajectory of countries, institutions, and other units of analysis – provide a propitious lens to teach the war in Ukraine. By analyzing the influence of this war on various policy fields, students of political science can determine themselves, if the war amounts to a critical juncture. In doing so, they not only learn how to apply a rather complex theory to a real-world scenario, they also learn how the discipline of political science operates.
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