Developing New Measurements of State Institutional Capacity
Most would agree that state institutional capacity is the ability of the state to provide goods and services that the state is responsible for, although many would disagree on what…
Russia’s Place in the World: An Exit Option?
In 1992, Russia’s new leadership, led by Boris Yeltsin, explicitly committed to making Russia part of the Western hegemonic system. By the following year, and for the decade after, Russia…
Back on Track?: Kyrgyz Authoritarianism after the Tulip Revolution
The year 2010 marks the fifth anniversary of Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution. The events of March 2005 fostered hopes that Kyrgyzstan was on a fast track to democracy. Five years later,…
Polish Public Opinion Toward Russia in the Aftermath of Smolensk: An Opportunity for Improved Relations
Polish-Russian relations have long been among the thorniest in Europe, providing an often serious impediment to improving broader EU-Russian relations. The events of April 2010, beginning with Russia’s changing line…
Russia’s Mortality Crisis: Will We Ever Learn?
We do not hear about it often, but the phenomenon is truly unprecedented: the transition to a market economy and democracy in the 1990s in Eastern Europe and post-Soviet Eurasia…
Russia and the EU: A New ‘Balance of Self-Confidence’
Most observers agree that in the latter half of the past decade, the EU-Russian relationship lacked substance, despite official parlance characterizing it as a “strategic partnership.” True, Russian energy kept…
The Role of Information Communication Technologies in the ‘Arab Spring’: Implications Beyond the Region
The tide of mass protests that swept through the Middle East in early 2011 highlighted the distinct role of modern information-communication technologies (ICT) and digital social media tools and networks.…
Russia’s ‘Over-Managed Democracy’ in Crisis
Two years ago, when evaluating the hybrid regime of “over-managed democracy” (OMD) that Vladimir Putin constructed during his two presidential terms, I concluded that this regime was transitory; it had…
Political Turmoil in the Northwestern Black Sea Rim: Ukraine, Moldova and Transnistria
We are witnessing the third wave of constitutional readjustment after the collapse of communism in post-Soviet Eurasia. Following the establishment of founding constitutional regimes in the early 1990s, the second…
Finlandization or Strategy of Keeping the Balance? Azerbaijan’s Foreign Policy Since the Russian-Georgian War
The two years since the end of the August 2008 Russian-Georgian war have represented a critical stage in Azerbaijan’s foreign policy. The war generated a new source of instability and…
Russia and the Eastern Partnership States in a New European Security Architecture
President Dmitry Medvedev’s European security initiatives of 2008-2009, culminating in his draft European Security Treaty of November 2009, sparked considerable debate regarding the potential and desirability of a new European…
EU-Russia Visa Talks: Open and Hidden Agendas
One of the most serious problems on the agenda of Russia-EU relations is the strict visa regime between Russia and the 25 European countries that share common external border controls…