New Eastern Europe Magazine May-August 2016 Back Issue

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union, an event that Vladimir Putin has dubbed the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. As a result of the Kremlin’s actions our region has witnessed in the 21st century a rearmed Russia, one that clearly challenges the post-Cold War liberal order. This new geopolitical situation has called into question previously held convictions, namely whether or not the NATO Alliance is truly ready and willing to defend its eastern flank and deter a hostile Russia.

As NATO prepares to address this issue in Warsaw in July 2016, our authors have begun the debate on the pages of this magazine focusing on the current state of NATO’s eastern flank, goals planned for the summit and the role Russia plays in the region today.

The collapse of communism has also taught us that power is more than brute force. That is why in this issue we look into the state of civil society in Eastern Europe – a sector that continuously needs support from western partners. Our exclusive survey of civil society organisations based in Eastern Europe shows that the NGO sector is growing and independent, but lacks assistance to build capacity.

A series of texts and interviews illustrates these challenges further by highlighting the specific situation in countries such as Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan. The conclusion of this section calls attention to the need of not only confronting revanchism with deterrence, but also focus on the social-economic aspect of state transformation, in other words winning the hearts and minds.

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