Category: Central/Eastern Europe

Pro-Putin ‘realists’ distort western perceptions of Ukraine?

     

Portraying Ukraine as unstable and on the verge of greater instability has been raised by realist scholars since the early 1990s and continues to dominate much of the pro-Putin western… Read more »

Georgia: is the party over?

     

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Georgia Support Act, HR 6219, reasserting the United States’ support for its sovereignty and opposition to the forceful and illegal Russian invasion of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali… Read more »

Hungary: how EU can take charge of illiberal trouble maker

     

With an alarming rise in anti-Semitism and attacks on press and academic freedom, Hungarian democracy had another bad year in 2018, notes Brookings analyst William A. Galston. More than 400… Read more »

Weaponizing technology: Russia is ‘winning disinformation war’

     

Russia’s disinformation campaign around the 2016 election used every major social media platform, according to reports obtained by The Washington Post before its official release Monday: The report is the… Read more »

Clash of ideas key in political warfare against neo-authoritarians

     

Both Russia and China are governed by opaque, highly centralized and increasingly personalized governments. Political warfare, for such regimes, is second nature, according to Hal Brands, the Henry A. Kissinger… Read more »

Russian disinformation takes fresh aim at democratic process

     

The techniques used by anti-democratic state and non-state actors to disrupt or influence democratic processes are constantly evolving, says the European Parliamentary Research Service. The use of algorithms, automation and… Read more »

Rethinking approaches to Bosnia and Herzegovina

     

More than two decades ago, the peace process in Dayton ended the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II and created what some consider to be the most complicated… Read more »

How democracies slide into authoritarianism

     

In “The Captive Mind,” Czeslaw Milosz documented the collusion that accompanies democracy’s collapse. While his message holds special relevance for those living in autocracies, its resonance extends to both free… Read more »

‘Neo-autocracy’: turning democracy into a tool of oppression

     

Władysław Frasyniuk (above) championed democracy in the face of Communist rule in Poland in the 80s. Now, he warns the freedom he fought for is starting to slip away. (The… Read more »

Georgia a ‘trailblazer for democracy in Caucasus’ or facing ‘uncertain future’?

     

Georgia “is a trailblazer for democracy in the Caucasus region” but it needs support from the West in order to maintain its liberal democratic trajectory, says president-elect Salomé Zourabichvili. “During… Read more »