A nation must think before it acts.
Eurasia
Resetting the Reset
In recent weeks, I have had the honor to attend different daylong seminars convened to ponder Russia’s future under Vladimir Putin and the future of U.S.-Russia relations: a “Russia Experts Meeting” hosted by the Carnegie Corporation of New York,...
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Lithuania Moves to Tackle Challenges Posed by Emigration
Over 15% of Lithuania’s population has left the country since it joined the European Union in 2004. Persistent high rates of emigration present both economic and social challenges to Lithuania. Most of the emigrants are young, skilled, and well...
Read more »Lithuania Moves to Bolster Electricity Security
Discussions of security in the Baltic states often focus on the countries’ need to control their border with Russia. These countries’ complicated electricity relations with Russia raise important security questions, too. Some Baltic security analysts fear that Russia could...
Read more »The Misery and Terror of Life Under Putin in Crimea
On March 16, 2014, Crimeans voted in a sham referendum for Russia to annex Crimea. Has life improved for the approximately 2 million people who live there? Not at all. On every measure, from the economy to its treatment of minorities,...
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How, Why, and When Russia Will Deploy Little Green Men – and Why the US Cannot
The focus of applied methods of conflict has altered in the direction of the broad use of political, economic, informational, humanitarian, and other nonmilitary measures – applied in coordination with the protest potential of the population. All this is...
Read more »What Georgia Needs to Do to Join the West
Georgia and the EU Executive Summary In recent years, Georgia made major advances in its relations with the EU and Georgia’s pro-Western orientation has always enjoyed high approval ratings from the public. However, recent trends show a...
Read more »The Problem Neither Obama Nor Bush Could Solve
The 2016 presidential campaign is turning into a mirror of the 2008 race. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton seeks to distinguish herself from the policies of the sitting chief executive, while sundry Republican candidates maintain that Obama’s incompetence has made America...
Read more »Latvia’s New-Old Government
Māris Kučinskis (Credit: Ernests Dinka, Saeimas Administrācija) The last few years have seen parts of East-Central Europe turn to the populist right. Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party won the 2010 and 2014 parliamentary elections with landslide majorities. Poland’s Law...
Read more »Putin vs. Putin: Why Russia Was Its Own Worst Enemy in 2015
Russia’s bold military interventions in both Ukraine and Syria have put Moscow’s geopolitical ambitions back at the center of analysis and debate. Despite last year’s confident claims in Western capitals that Moscow would be unable to sustain its efforts...
Read more »Latvia’s Citizenship Law — A Chink in Latvian Armor
The security of the Baltic States has become a Western priority since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Since then, defenses have been oiled, improved, and stand alert. NATO forces have been stationed in the region and to...
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