Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
Beijing Seeks Paradigm Shift in Geopolitics
China’s on-going tussle with the United States over issues including Taiwan, Tibet and trade is in a sense nothing new. For more than two decades, Sino-U.S. relations have periodically gone through rough patches over these and related causes of disagreement. What is new is China’s... MORE
Russia’s President Visits North Caucasus Offering No Real Solution to its Main Problem
In the eleventh year of conflict in the North Caucasus, the Russian leadership intends (yet again) to radically change the situation to its advantage. With this intent, on February 27, President Dmitry Medvedev unexpectedly arrived in Nalchik (the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria) (www.rian.ru, February 27).Perhaps the... MORE
Brussels Ready to Work with Yanukovych for Ukraine
Ukraine’s newly elected President, Viktor Yanukovych, chose Brussels as his first destination for a working visit abroad. Inaugurated on February 25, Yanukovych held talks with European Union leaders on March 1, ahead of a March 5 visit to Moscow. This chosen sequence, as well as... MORE
The North Caucasus Receives Unprecedented Attention from Russian Leaders
On March 1, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made an unannounced brisk visit to the North Caucasus. In the North Ossetian town of Beslan, Putin met the head of North Ossetia, Taimuraz Mamsurov, and in the capital of Ingushetia, Magas, he held a longer meeting with... MORE
Is the Kremlin Announcement a new Drive to Suppress Government Critics?
On February 27, President Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise trip to the North Caucasus, visiting Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria and Cherkessk in the neighboring republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia. The Russian president reiterated that the government remains concerned about the situation in the North Caucasus. Recognizing the growing... MORE
Is the Kremlin Announcement a new Drive to Suppress Government Critics?
On February 27, President Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise trip to the North Caucasus, visiting Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria and Cherkessk in the neighboring republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia. The Russian president reiterated that the government remains concerned about the situation in the North Caucasus. Recognizing the growing... MORE
Medvedev in Paris: Vive la Georgie, Monsieur?
Alexander II, Tsar of Russia, visited France at the invitation of Emperor Napoleon III in 1867, three years after the Russian army’s bloody suppression of Poland’s revolt for independence. The French emperor, political establishment, and big players on the Paris Bourse were all eager to... MORE
Could a Trip to Paris Re-Energize Medvedev’s “Modernization?”
President Dmitry Medvedev has commenced his state visit to France today, and over the next three days he will receive red carpet treatment and dine in style. There is certainly a rich cultural program marking the officially sponsored “Russian year” in France and an opportunity... MORE
Baku Promotes Stability in the South Caucasus
It appears that both processes surrounding the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Karabakh and the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement intensified almost immediately after the Russia-Georgia war in August 2008, which established a new geopolitical environment, with implications not only for Georgia, but also for the South Caucasus and beyond.... MORE
British Delegation Notes “Progress” and “Climate of Fear” in Chechnya
On February 16-17, a delegation of the British parliament’s committee on human rights visited Chechnya. A member of the delegation, Lord Frank Judd, who was formerly the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) rapporteur for Chechnya, stated that he was impressed by the... MORE