Within days of Maia Sandu’s victory, the protracted conflict over Transnistria has moved to the centre stage again.
De-facto States
A New Dynamic for Post-Soviet Conflict Settlement?
The protracted conflicts across the post-Soviet space have returned to the center of regional and international politics over the past several months.
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?
Linkage and leverage effects on Moldova’s Transnistria problem
Co-authored with John Beyer and published in East European Politics, this article asks what the impact is of geopolitical competition on conflict resolution and democratisation in the context of extensive and multi-directional linkages and leverage? Our analysis...
Moldova’s future in the balance
Even in the best-possible scenario, Moldova has a long way to go before it sheds its reputation as one of the most corrupt and poorest countries in Europe. It will be up to the country’s political elites, as well as their respective external patrons, to decide whether these elections are the first step in this direction.
Post-Soviet Confidence Games
Confidence-building measures can help to stabilize a conflict, but the stability they generate is often fragile and temporary. In an environment like that in Ukraine, there is a risk that such measures will sustain, not end, the conflict.
Putin forges ahead with Novorossiya
As the situation in eastern Ukraine stabilises and the country hopefully muddles through the winter, Western attention will soon enough turn to other crises around the world where co-operation with Russia is essential. That much we have seen before: who, after all, remembers Crimea?
Inside Donetsk–a city at war
With the battle lines drawn locally and internationally, neither a political nor a military solution to Ukraine’s crisis are likely anytime soon.
The Self-styled people’s governor of Donetsk
A blend of Soviet-style egalitarianism mixed with cultural mythology and the geographic historical precedent of Novorossiya may appeal to those who voted yes in the May referendum and it is also an attractive geopolitical concept from Moscow’s perspective.