The growing challenges confronting the OSCE are unwelcome reminders that the tools and institutions that underlie multilateral diplomacy have atrophied greatly in recent years.
Reeling from a military defeat in a war with Turkey-backed Azerbaijan, can Armenia’s hard-won democracy withstand domestic political turmoil?
The pact Russia brokered in Nagorno-Karabakh has plenty of holes. Yet while their relations with the Kremlin remain tense, Western powers are better equipped to patch up the agreement’s shortcomings than Russia is, and they have strong reasons for trying to do so.
The six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has ended, shifting the regional landscape in the Caucasus. Yet the fragile peace has come at great cost to Armenia, which feels betrayed by Russia and abandoned the West.
Kyrgyzstan is in the midst of historic political upheaval, spurred on by nearly three decades of government misrule, a frustrated civil society and the rise of unsavory criminal groups to positions of power. The Central Asian nation looks set for more volatility—and the Kyrgyz people will pay the price.
As the battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan heats up, Russia struggles to contend with a vastly more complicated landscape in the South Caucasus.
With the United States shrugging off its erstwhile role as the world’s policeman, can anyone stop the fierce fighting now raging between Armenia and Azerbaijan?
Russia’s relations with Europe are getting worse. Time and again, it is Moscow’s own overreach and missteps that encourage greater Western unity, or at the very least leave the Europeans no alternative to confronting Russia.
Eurasia is squeezed between a rising China and an aggressive and unpredictable Russia. The United States should remain engaged with the region to help it resist Russian advances.
The greatest obstacle to countering Russia’s hard-edged foreign policy has been the West’s incoherent response.