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If the West responds to the recent violent crackdown in Belarus by isolating the country's people and cutting off all dialogue with the authorities in Minsk, it misses the chance to empower more forward-looking elements in Belarusian society and within the ruling regime.
Following last month's presidential election and subsequent government crackdown on opposition activists, Belarus is at a strategic crossroads, but a swift response by Minsk could salvage the country's course toward reform and greater integration.
As Russia’s 2012 presidential elections draw near, the tandem government between President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin faces increasing strain.
If the Abkhaz government continues to avoid engagement with the international community, it runs the risk of letting Russia determine Abkhazia's future.
Nearly two years after President Obama’s reset of bilateral relations with Russia, the ratification of New START by the U.S. Congress is an important step forward both for U.S.-Russia cooperation and for global nuclear security.
Unlike in Russia, where organized crime persists in part because the government lacks the political will to enforce the law consistently, organized crime in the Caucasus has its roots in a larger cultural problem.
Russia’s GDP is expected to grow at low rates the next two years and the country's budgetary outlook remains uncertain, while recent riots and violence suggest that the country’s political situation is deteriorating.
The civil nuclear cooperation deal, or 123 agreement, will greatly improve the ability of both Russia and the United States to prevent proliferation and it will advance mutual interests, improve relations, and deliver on the promise of the reset.
Abkhazia’s relationship with Russia and the larger international community is shaped both by its disputed status as an independent state and by a sharp historical memory of its equally disputed past.
Global leaders must carefully craft a new way to approach international security challenges that will allow them to trim costly defense programs while still maintaining a modern security apparatus.