Please join us on Thursday, June 4, 5-6:30 PM for a forum on "The Territorial Dimensions 
of Armed Conflict." UT Chancellor Jimmy Cheek will open the discussion and welcome 
researchers from across the US.  The panel will be moderated by Dr. Krista Wiegand, 
Baker Faculty Fellow and associate professor, UT Political Science.  The panelists are 
professors:    Susan Allen, Univ. of Mississippi; Andy Owsiak, Univ. of Georgia; Jamie 
Scalera, Georgia Southern Univ.; Sam Bell, Kansas State Univ. and Brandon Prins, Univ. 
of Tennessee.

This June 4 event is free and open to the public and will be held in the Toyota Auditorium.  

In light of the recent annexation of Ukrainian territory by Russia and the persistent fear 
that the conflict will escalate, the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy and the 
Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee are hosting this two-day 
workshop and preceding public forum. This forum will kickoff a workshop on June 5-6 
focused on the topic-- New Directions in the Study of Territory and Political Violence - 
Advancing Theory, Methods & Data Collection. The workshop will bring together scholars 
from across the country who research the conditions associated with political violence, 
how issues such as territory factor into leaders' decisions during crises, the geo-spatial 
environments accompanying insurgency, civil war, democratization, and the effects of 
issue salience on leader bargaining. 

This program was designed in response to the recent conflict over Crimea and Eastern 
Ukraine.  It illustrates the importance of these issues in world politics. The ‘bones of 
contention’ between Kiev and Moscow are not simply the abstract concepts of power and 
security, but importantly relate to specific disagreements over territorial possessions and 
economic instability. Crimea serves as a critical military installation for the Russian Navy 
and efforts to foment political unrest in Ukraine by Russian authorities may reflect an 
attempt to derail economic ties with the EU so as to inhibit goods from Europe evading 
Russian tariffs.