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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's proposed European security treaty has its flaws, but it is a first step toward an important conversation that must take place if a viable and undivided Euro-Atlantic security space is to be created.
To the dismay of Russian reformers, a consensus seems to be growing among Western policymakers and intellectuals that Russia is not ready for liberalism and that there are even certain advantages to dealing with the illiberal political order built by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
To dismiss Medvedev as a mere Putin puppet would be a mistake; Medvedev was chosen to recruit an internet savvy and generally more liberal Russian constituency to the Kremlin’s program of conservative modernization.
On a global stage, losers of the decade include the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, who are suffering from violence, poverty, and extremism. Global winners include Google, J.K. Rowling, and Hugo Chavez, who has proven more resilient than expected in surviving both his opponents and his own misdeeds.
A new procedure in Russia’s gubernatorial elections that allows the party dominating the regional legislature to nominate gubernatorial candidates only perpetuates the worst problems of the previous system of appointments.
As the war in Afghanistan begins to enter a new phase, it is important to reexamine some of the premises of U.S. policy in the Central Asian region and to consider whether the conditions in the region have changed in the last decade.
The North Caucasus looks and feels more and more like Russia’s neighbor than a constituent part of the state. As the people in the region have become disappointed in local leaders and the Kremlin, many of them turn to Islam as their last hope to achieve structure and peace.
As the world headed to Copenhagen to talk about climate change, Russians were largely silent on the subject; by most accounts, the average Russian citizen doesn’t think about global warming at all.
Russia is the only major economy that is not a member of the WTO, but discussions over its accession have intensified, giving rise to important questions about the implications for world trade.
The hoped for undivided “Europe whole and free” of twenty years ago has today become a region in danger of seeing new lines divide the continent with the prospect of heightened tension for all. It will require adjustments and new thinking from all to recapture the promise of an undivided, secure, and prosperous region.
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