BRUSSELS—Full details of the Obama administration’s new look in defense spending, force posture, and strategy are not yet out. But enough has been revealed  to venture some thoughts on the logic of the new approach and the longer-term implications for the United States and transatlantic partners. The shift to a “one war, spoil and manage” [...]

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BUCHAREST—The landslide victory of former speaker of the Parliament Yevgeny Shevchuk in the December 25 Transnistrian presidential elections came as a surprise to observers in Moldova, Russia, and the West. Shevchuk, who won 74 percent of the vote in the run-off, overcame the challenges of the Moscow-backed candidate Anatoly Kaminski and the incumbent of 20 [...]

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To this American previously unfamiliar with the South Caucasus, the first feeling upon arrival in Azerbaijan is a sense of growth and industry. Brightly-lit buildings line the road from the airport to Baku. Arresting new developments like the trio of “flame tower” skyscrapers seem designed to impress visitors and locals alike with a sense of [...]

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ISTANBUL — When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Istanbul over the weekend for the fourth meeting of the Libya Contact Group and bilateral meetings with her hosts, she would have sensed the confidence of a new regional power.  Turkey today boasts one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and perhaps the [...]

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By Alina Inayeh BUCHAREST — Nearly four months after a young Tunisian fruit seller burned himself alive out of despair over the corruption of his country and sparked a popular revolt against autocracy that swept the region, thunderstruck leaders on both sides of the Atlantic are finding their voice again. Last week, U.S. President Barack [...]

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CHISINAU/KIEV/TBILISI—Western politicians and policymakers were already looking overwhelmed before the nuclear catastrophe in Japan and the upheavals across the Middle East hit them. Why on earth should they bother with Eastern Europe now, that forlorn and troubled backwater arcing from Belarus to the Caucasus? The forces pulling and tugging at the West today are indeed [...]

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The world’s attention is rightly focused on Asia, as the effects of the earthquake in Japan still unfold. It is thus not surprising that the regional elections held this Sunday in Russia went almost unnoticed. Most regional elections would probably have the same fate even in a world not confronted with a major disaster, yet [...]

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BUCHAREST — Sometimes, democratic progress can be gauged with a ruler. Last Sunday in Moldova, it measured exactly 94.5 centimeters or almost 37 inches—the length of the ballot paper Moldovan voters were issued when they went to the polls for the third time in the last 19 months to elect a parliament. A total of [...]

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WASHINGTON — As U.S. and European leaders gather for the NATO summit in Lisbon, their main focus will be the institution’s new strategic concept. But they cannot afford to ignore Turkey’s precipitous drift out of the NATO orbit and its implications for peace and stability in the Middle East and the West’s relations with Russia [...]

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The August 2008 war between Georgia and Russia briefly catapulted the tiny Caucasian republic onto newspapers’ front pages worldwide before swiftly returning it to its former status as an international affairs backwater. So few paid attention when, on October 15, the Georgian parliament overwhelmingly approved constitutional amendments that will transfer most governmental authority from the [...]

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