Georgia’s aspirations to become a candidate for EU membership were seen by many in the country as an effective consolidating factor for Georgian politics and society. It seems, however, that the process is having the opposite effect. The closer the European Union comes to a... MORE

On October 1, Robert Fico beat out three former prime ministers in Slovakia’s parliamentary elections, and on October 11, he agreed to a coalition that will form Slovakia’s next government (Euractiv, October 1; Euronews, October 11). Fico, a former Slovak prime minister himself, was expected... MORE

In September 2023, all European Union member states bordering Russia introduced an entry ban on cars sporting Russian license plates. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were the first to implement the policy, albeit with Vilnius leaving open an exception for transit from the Russian exclave Kaliningrad... MORE

Azerbaijan’s recovery of control over the unrecognized statelet in Karabakh by military means unsurprisingly has been seen by some in other countries as a precedent for action against breakaway republics elsewhere (see EDM, September 20). This is true for Moldova, where several nationalist politicians and... MORE

Amidst the drama surrounding Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s early April stopover in Southern California, where she met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the subsequent People’s Liberation Army (PLA) maneuvers around Taiwan that followed, it can be easy to forget why the Taiwanese President was... MORE

Introduction In March, at the opening session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), the top legislature of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced an annual defense budget of roughly 1.55 trillion yuan (about $224.79 billion) for fiscal year 2023, which is a 7.2... MORE

Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has been going on for more than a year, has caused deep reflection among Russian-speaking intellectuals from different countries and has even led them to Nietzsche's "revaluation of all values." At the beginning of 2023, Mikhail Epstein, philosopher and professor... MORE

Soon after the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama posited the idea of “the end of history.” In the eyes of Fukuyama and several other Western experts, the evaporation of the influence of... MORE

Introduction Shortly after Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suffered the worst loss in its 37-year history, Nikkei Asia Review published an article entitled “Taiwan’s KMT has a mountain to climb for 2024 presidential race” that cautioned not to read too much into the opposition... MORE

On Sunday, Premier Li Keqiang presented his final Government Work Report (Report) to the National People’s Congress (NPC) laying out broad economic goals while largely steering clear of President Xi Jinping’s quasi-Maoist approach to the economy (People’s Daily, March 5). As he prepares to retire... MORE