Eurasia

The Transnistrian Conflict: A Destabilizing Status Quo?

The conflict in Transnistria is the last secessionist conflict in the post-Soviet space that remains “frozen,” in the sense that unlike in Georgia or Nagorno-Karabakh, both sides agree on the boundary line, and there is no ongoing fighting. Nevertheless,...

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Georgia after Montenegro’s NATO Accession

Montenegro’s recent accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) sent an important political message to Russia’s post-Soviet neighbors: NATO’s door remains open to new members no matter the security environment. This signal will likely propel many post-Soviet countries...

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China’s Awkward Debt Problem

The Trump-Putin Meeting: No More than Baby Steps

Fighting Disinformation in the Baltic States

Russian media played a key role in stoking the conflict in Ukraine, sparking fear in the Baltic states that they could become the next target. In the wake of the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine, Russian state-owned media shaped a...

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America’s Adversaries Are Not Happy with Trump

What the Riga Elections Say about Latvian Politics

On June 3, 2017, nine Latvian cities and 110 municipalities elected local councils, which are tasked with creating and maintaining municipal regulations, implementing social services, and overseeing local schools. The key question of these elections was whether Harmony, a...

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What Should Be the Role of Democracy Promotion in American Foreign Policy?

On June 19, the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) hosted a BookTalk on “Does Democracy Matter?,” a recently published collection of essays edited by Adrian Basora, Agnieszka Marczyk, and Maia Otarashvili. The panel featured Ambassador Basora and Nikolas Gvosdev,...

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Considering Ukraine’s Ethnic Minorities and Their Influence on Russian Foreign Policy

Abstract Transnational Ethnic Alliance Theory at its core posits that the majority ethnic group in one state will come to the defense of its ethnic brethren that are a minority in a neighboring state, if that group is facing...

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What the West Can Learn from Rationalizing Russia’s Action in Ukraine

Abstract Russia’s foreign policy decisions towards Ukraine in the context of the “Ukraine crisis” have been portrayed largely in a negative light which crudely paints Russia’s actions as being imperialistic, evil and largely irrational. This article argues that by...

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