Baltic Sea Security offers a multifaceted discussion of the complex security issues affecting the Baltic region—with important implications for the cohesion of the wider transatlantic alliance. Regional and international experts provide in-depth analysis of the current levels of defense and security cooperation among the Western countries in the Baltic basin, focusing on military    More >

This in-depth security review of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania assesses current challenges pertaining to defense and deterrence, societal security and resilience, economic security, and cybersecurity. The authors also explore potential avenues for subregional cooperation, offering detailed recommendations on how best to proceed with a more coherent, goal-oriented, and efficient cooperation    More >

In March 2012, at a meeting convened by the recently reelected Russian president Vladimir Putin, Minister of Defense Serdyukov informed Mr. Putin that a plan was being prepared for "the development of weapons based on new physical principles: radiation, geophysical wave, genetic, psychophysical, etc." Subsequently, in response to concerns expressed both in Russia and abroad, the Russian    More >

Black Sea Battleground identifies and analyzes the key elements of a comprehensive US strategy for dealing with the cauldron of geopolitical and military competition in the Black Sea region.    More >

In September 2013, Xi Jinping announced the launch of a Chinese-led megaproject, the Belt and Road Initiative, that would transform Asia's position within the global economy. Some ten years on, the BRI, while facing significant obstacles, has gone from strength to strength. How has China’s BRI diplomacy affected its image across Asia? What does the BRI mean for Sino-US competition?    More >

How did Macedonia attain its status as the only Yugoslav republic to achieve a nonviolent transition to independence in the early 1990s? And why did the initial peace fail to endure? Sasho Ripiloski traces Macedonia's peaceful extrication from the Yugoslav morass and then examines the new country's subsequent state-building efforts and offers an explanation for its later collapse into    More >

Despite the popularity of microfinance as a tool for economic development, there has been little analysis of its foundations or its real effectiveness in fighting poverty. Attempting to fill that gap, the authors of Confronting Microfinance first provide global perspectives that challenge the conventional wisdom and then focus on southeastern Europe—a key arena for microfinance and    More >

Attempts to transform the Russian Federation into a nation state, a civic state, or a stable imperial state have failed, argues Janusz Bugajski. Paradoxically, though Vladimir Putin assumed power to prevent Russia's disintegration, he may be remembered best for precipitating the country's demise. Bugajski considers the factors contributing to a possible Russian state collapse, among    More >

How do the former Soviet republics that now constitute the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) interact with each other and with other regional and world powers? What are the conceptual foundations, mechanisms, and main directions of each member state's foreign policy? What role do economic and political factors play? Answering these questions and more in this systematic, comprehensive    More >

Why do democratic leaders sometimes choose not to establish institutions that would promote the consolidation of democracy? And what are the consequences of those choices? Focusing on the cases of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, John Scherpereel explores the interplay of historical institutional legacies, short-term elite interests, and international pressures (i.e., EU conditionality) in the    More >

Vladimir Putin's efforts to build influence abroad have succeeded in many places, but the Kremlin has also faced serious hurdles and even defeats. Thomas Kent delves into six cases where hubris and miscalculation led to reversals—some temporary, some permanent—of Russia's fortunes and suggests how understanding the common threads in Russia's self-defeating behavior can be    More >

The connection between Soviet authoritarianism and human rights violations once seemed unassailable, as did the belief that a transition away from communist rule would lead to better protection of human rights. Challenging these assumptions, Jonathan Weiler argues that the tumultuous processes associated with political and economic reform have, in important instances, eroded human rights in    More >

What is hybrid warfare?  And what role does information play in today's conflicts? In the context of the technological/information revolution of the last two decades—which has greatly amplified the danger posed by nonmilitary means of political struggle—Hybrid Conflicts and Information Warfare addresses these questions from the perspectives of both Western and Russian    More >

Russia's Muslims, numbering some 15 million, constitute far from a homogeneous sociopolitical group. So ... What does it mean to be a Muslim in Russia today?  How is the image of Islam constructed, and how do the country's Muslims—and non-Muslims—perceive and react to it? These are the questions that gave rise to this book. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the    More >

A full reckoning of Nikita Khrushchev's accomplishments and failures cannot be complete without looking beyond his foreign policy initiatives to assess his efforts to introduce domestic policy reforms in the Soviet Union. Sergei Khrushchev tells the full story of those efforts during the years immediately before his father's ouster—and of the intrigues and struggles for power that    More >

Despite the deployment of NATO forces in Kosovo and the UN's direct involvement in governing the province, such terrors as murder, disappearances, bombings, and arson have become routine occurrences. William O'Neill analyzes the nature of the violence that continues to plague Kosovo's residents and assesses efforts to guarantee public security. O'Neill considers how the particular    More >

Coryn Hall presents us with a new and accessible biography of Empress Maire Fedorovna, who was married to Tsar Alexander III of Russia, and mother to Nicholas II . This insightful work—the first in over 40 years and the first in English—traces the empress's tragic life from little known daughter of the King of Denmark, to integral part of the Russian imperial family, through    More >

Aleksandr Golts traces the evolution of the Russian military, from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the incursions in eastern Ukraine in 2014–2017. Golts also sheds light on the reemergence of militarism in the Putin era, exploring its origins and making sense of the acceptance of the phenomenon by so much of Russian society.    More >

Why has political corruption emerged as a major obstacle to successful democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe? Exploring the origins, scope, and impact of political corruption in the region's post communist states, Tatiana Kostadinova identifies the factors that favor illicit behavior and considers how the various forms of malfeasance are threatening democracy. Rich cross-national data    More >

Political parties typically are assumed to be essential for contemporary democratic government and governance. Why, then, has the regime change in Russia failed to produce viable political parties? Grigorii Golosov addresses this question, exploring issues central to an understanding of Russian political development. Golosov combines statistical and qualitative analysis, including case studies,    More >

What constitutes Europe today? Is there an identifiable European culture that transcends state boundaries? How do the various national political, economic, and social structures and institutions work? To what extent does the European Union influence policy in the region for members and nonmembers alike? Stephen Wright's comprehensive discussion of contemporary European politics addresses these    More >

Considerable material and human resources are devoted to building democratic institutions around the world. Why, then, do assistance programs fail to meet their proclaimed goals? And why aren't these programs changed or abandoned when they fail? Using US assistance to women's NGOs in postcommunist Ukraine as a case study, Kateryna Pishchikova shows why democracy promotion programs have a    More >

The sudden arrival of massive energy wealth during Putin's long reign has turned Russia's focus to resources, with some good and some very bad results. Considering why the good—a windfall of money to pay debts and put the country's finances in order—has been so overshadowed by the bad—resource dependence, reliance on rents, and unbridled corruption—Stefan    More >

Do Russia and the European Union have any substantial influence over the political trajectories of post-Soviet states? Shedding new light on the interplay between domestic and external drivers of regime change, Jakob Tolstrup analyzes the impact of Russia and the EU on the democratization and autocratization processes in Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine.    More >

The strategically pivotal Russian Far East—a vast expanse stretching from Lake Baikal to the Pacific Ocean—is notable not only for its rich natural resources, but also for the economic challenges, internal dissent, and risks of foreign encroachment that it faces. Rensselaer Lee and Artyom Lukin explore the history, economics, and politics of the RFE in the context of its geopolitical    More >

How does Russia fight wars? How are its experiences with modern conflicts shaping the evolution of its military strategy, capabilities, and doctrine? Addressing these questions, the contributors to Russia's Military Strategy and Doctrine consider strategic-level issues ranging from hybrid warfare, to the role of nuclear weapons, to cyber and electromagnetic warfare, to Moscow's posture in    More >

Roger McDermott traces the origins and trajectory of Moscow's modernization of its armed forces to exploit technology and adopt new approaches to warfare. Drawing extensively on primary sources, McDermott explores the role of Russian military thought in the modernization process, changes in military decisionmaking, developments stemming from Russian military operations in Syria, and other    More >

Searching for Peace in Europe and Eurasia offers much-needed insight into the possibilities for effective conflict prevention and peacebuilding throughout the region. Presenting surveys of the violent conflicts in Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, the contributors offer a unique combination of background information, detailed descriptions of ongoing activities, and assessments of future    More >

Among the contentious issues that come into play in relations between Russia and the other post-Soviet states, security concerns are arguably at the top of the list. Ruth Deyermond explores the linkage between post-Soviet security politics and the development of state sovereignty in the region, focusing on Russia's interactions with Ukraine, Georgia, and Belarus. Deyermond ranges from    More >

Energizing the debate on how best to expose and deal with Russian propaganda and disinformation, Thomas Kent goes beyond suggesting simple defensive measures. Kent not only calls for more government and private aid to expose Russian operations, but also describes how new, aggressive messaging campaigns against Russian disinformation could be run, the ethical questions involved, and the pros and    More >

The widely misunderstood country of Belarus, squeezed both literally and geopolitically between Russia and the West, was typically overlooked by post–Cold War military planners—until Russia's first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Now, with Russia's latest offensive in Ukraine, Belarus's geostrategic importance to NATO and the surrounding region is more in the spotlight than    More >

In this remarkable story of postcommunist politics gone wrong, John Gould explores privatization’s role in the scramble for wealth and power in postcommunist Europe. Gould engages the core debates on privatization. Does democratic development facilitate effective capitalist reform, or vice versa? How do political legacies shape privatization choices? Is simultaneous transition feasible?    More >

In Ties That Bind, Ties That Divide, Juliana Puskás, a prominent scholar on immigration, examines the Hungarian-American experience. Often overshadowed by the stories of other immigrant communities, the Hungarian community is finally brought to the forefront in Puskás's thorough discussion. Beginning with a look at the semifeudal state of mid-nineteenth century Hungarian society,    More >

When the Dayton peace agreement was signed in 1995, there were expectations among the signatories, the Bosnian population, and the international community alike that the pact would not only end conflict among Bosnia's three armies, but also establish a political and social foundation for more robust peace. Recognizing that the latter goal—incorporating political reform and    More >

Focusing on cases of international intervention in Kosovo, Serbia, and Macedonia, the authors of Transacting Transition explore how the mission and vision of "democracy promotion" is enacted on the ground—where principles of transparency, gender equality, and interethnic cooperation run up against the realities of political agendas, self-interest, and memories of conflict.    More >

Russia today is in many ways different from the country portrayed a decade ago in the first edition of Understanding Contemporary Russia. With an upsurge of both national pride—despite a struggling economy—and civil society activism, with a palpable tension between the support for democratic values and the intense desire for political stability, with an increased role in world politics    More >

Does it make sense for the United States to cooperate with Russia to resolve international security issues? Is it possible for the two countries to work together to reduce the dangers associated with nuclear weapons? Where does Vladimir Putin fit into the calculus? Engaging the debate on these contentious issues, Stephen Cimbala provides context for and policy-relevant analysis of current    More >