Bush and his foreign team certainly have their hands full. Yet, they cannot allow past victories to slip away while pursuing new ones. A return of dictatorship in Russia, a country armed with thousands of nuclear weapons, would present a much greater threat than the current set of tyrants now threatening U.S. security.
The systematic terrorization of the elite - the arrest of scores of people who have experience in running the government and the economy, the terrorization of their families, the push into exile and silence of dozens of other people has enormous consequences for the capacity of a state as small as Turkmenistan to govern itself.
The soon-to-be members of the EU are to be congratulated but a new divide has emerged to their east. Until now, the EU has been so preoccupied with its enlargement that it has had little time to look further east. It must now face up to its responsibility and focus on what it can do. The EU's goal should be to integrate the post-Soviet economies for mutual economic benefit and political stability.
A seminar by Gilbert Rozman on history of Russia-Japan normalization efforts, the results of the recent Putin-Koizumi summit, and the prospects for the future of Russo-Japanese relations.
The dual enlargement of the West--the expansion of both the NATO alliance and the European Union--is one of the most important and least understood developments in contemporary foreign and security policy.
- Presentation by The Honorable Alexander Vershbow, Ambassador of the United States to the Russian Federation. Listen to audio or read the transcript.
Major impediments to a unified energy strategy do not come from Russia. The dynamics of interstate relations between Russia, Caspian, and other transit states, and domestic politics in any of these states, decrease the likelihood of any singular, meaningful international energy development strategy.

The whole world is closely paying attention to what the US is doing in Afghanistan, because this is the first experience of a war on terrorism. When the military presence will end is difficult to say. But whatever happens, if we cannot demonstrate to other countries that we are able to finish what we started, than the other countries will think that the US is lacking in diligence and resolve.