Carnegie Moscow Center
Georgia is entering a crucial period of transition and elections in 2012-13 and although the country has taken steps toward reform, so far the governing elite has done little to build a sustainable model.
Georgia's main party has won two elections and dominates the political landscape, but with high unemployment and growing food inflation, it risks becoming a victim of its own success.
As both Georgia and Russia head toward elections in 2012, their politicians face a dangerous temptation to use the smoldering conflict between the two nations for domestic political purposes.
The statement on Nagorny Karabakh by Presidents Medvedev, Obama, and Sarkozy at the G8 summit in Deauville, France is the most serious international declaration on the conflict in many years.
Russian experience in fighting terrorism shows that the elimination of charismatic leaders like Osama bin Laden does not necessarily end the deadly threat posed by the terrorist groups they led.
As the Georgian parliament contemplates passing a resolution declaring the 1864 Russian deportations of the Circassians to be genocide, it risks setting a precedent for the Abkhaz, an ethnic group also deported by the Russian Empire in 1867.
The death of Osama bin Laden strikes several blows against global terrorism and provides President Obama the opportunity to relaunch his dialogue with the Muslim world.
In order for the EU to succeed in promoting political and economic reform in several eastern European countries, it must find a way to offer significant incentives to the political elites of those nations even as it withholds the possibility of EU membership.
Generations of state socialism had the effect of devaluing public space and creating a sharp split between the public and private spheres. This divide still exists today and helps explain the apathetic political culture that exists in most of the former Soviet Union.
As events continue to drive Russians and Chechens further apart, Moscow must find a way to establish a Russian civic identity in which the peoples of the Caucasus have a stake.