Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
While there were high hopes for Ukraine’s speedy transition to a wealthy free market democracy and full membership in the European and Euro-Atlantic communities when it declared independence in 1991, it has fallen short of these targets.
Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, democracies need to develop a new model that fosters civic duty and responsibility in their citizens and takes a more global perspective on leadership in the modern world.
Twenty years after the Soviet collapse, leaders of the five Central Asian republics have built functioning states but they have yet to fully implement democratic reforms, decentralize and share power, and develop strong intraregional relations.
Twenty years after its independence from the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has made a smooth transition to a middle income country and advanced a foreign policy that could make it a vital bridge between Europe and Asia.
Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia face a number of shared challenges, including weak rule of law, entrenched corruption, and incomplete democratization.
Ordinary Armenians, Azeris, Georgians, and Abkhaz are growing increasingly estranged from each other as nationalist narratives continue to overshadow local examples of peaceful co-existence.
As Kazakhstan celebrates its twentieth anniversary of independence, the country faces a number of tough geopolitical, political, economic, and social challenges.
Two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian views of democracy, free markets, and political leadership have changed.
Legacies of the Soviet era still pervade Kazakhstan, 20 years after independence, and leave most citizens unable to offer a detached judgment of what benefits Kazakhstan might have derived from seven decades of Soviet rule.
Twenty years after the end of the Soviet Union, the South Caucasus countries can no longer be considered “in transition,” but questions remain about how well they are faring compared to the democratic countries of the European Union or the rising economies of Asia.