The protracted conflicts across the post-Soviet space have returned to the center of regional and international politics over the past several months.
Moldova
What next for Moldova?
Will Maia Sandu’s victory matter for one of Europe’s poorest country, which has been torn between Russia and the West for the better part of the past three decades?
Remember the Cold War? Putin has brought it back.
Many remember Russia’s Cold War strategy of invading, destabilizing and intervening in other countries’ governance. Putin has apparently once again made this his policy.
Can the US and Russia talk their way out of crisis in Ukraine?
More constructive dialogue between Russia and the West would possibly enable a face-saving way out of the current deadlock. This would serve both sides in the new great game over influence in Eastern Europe, but Russia would be the clear winner, and Ukraine the first victim of this new geopolitics.
Putin calling all the shots in Ukraine: what next for relations between Russia and the West?
Neither Russia nor the West can really afford to let bilateral relations deteriorate to such an extent over the crisis in Ukraine that international diplomacy and crisis management become completely impossible for a prolonged period of time.
The Transnistrian Issue: Moving Beyond the Status-Quo
The EU has a clear opportunity to contribute to the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict and prove itself an effective conflict manager and actor for stability and security in its own neighbourhood. This is a task that is not without challenges, but these challenges are of such a nature that the EU can, and must, confront them.
Two decades of ‘frozen’ conflicts in the post-Soviet space
At the end of 2011, it will be twenty years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union but so-called “frozen conflicts” in Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan stubbornly persist. Why, despite significant international efforts, has no settlement been achieved for these conflicts over the past two decades?
Can the EU do without its Special Representatives?
As so often with international organisations, the problem might be less the availability of resources and expertise, but the political will to deploy them.