Projects on the Eastern and Central European region include: U.S.-EU Partnership Committee for Ukraine, the Transatlantic Policy Forum, and the U.S.-Kazakhstan OSCE Task Force
The Institute for New Democracies (IND) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) are launching a new initiative to assist Kazakhstan in shaping its OSCE chairmanship agenda and to help strengthen U.S.-Kazakh relations. During 2009, CSIS and IND will organize a U.S.-Kazakhstan OSCE Task Force in Washington, DC to bring together policymakers, regional specialists, representatives of non-governmental organizations, representatives of former OSCE chairing countries, and business leaders to offer implementable recommendations for shaping a compelling and focused agenda for Kazakhstan’s OSCE chairmanship. Read More.
The Transatlantic Policy Forum (TAPF) encourages dialogue and debate on a number of salient issues impacting transatlantic relations in the timeframe of the French, Czech, and Swedish EU Presidencies and the beginning of a new U.S. administration. A collaborative project among key U.S. and European research institutes, TAPF partners include: EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, Prague (lead institute); the German Marshall Fund of the United States; Notre-Europe, Paris; the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies, Stockholm; the Prague Security Studies Institute, Prague; and the CSIS New European Democracies Project. Evaluating transatlantic cooperation in four key policy areas, the project’s working groups have made recommendations to the EU Troika and the U.S. administration for improving U.S.-EU ties. View the TAPF Factsheet.
The U.S.-EU Partnership Committee for Ukraine, co-chaired by Zbigniew Brzezinski, CSIS Counselor and Trustee, and Volker Rühe, former Defense Minister of Germany, supports the consolidation of Ukraine’s democracy and market economy and encourages joint U.S.-EU policies that enhance Ukraine’s integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions. The Partnership Committee is supported by the analysis and policy advice of four CSIS task forces structured around four key challenges facing Ukraine today: political and economic transformation, energy security, Ukrainian-Russian relations, and Euro-Atlantic integration. CSIS task force directors include Steven Pifer, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and CSIS Senior Adviser; Keith Smith, former U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania and CSIS Senior Associate; Celeste Wallander, Professor at Georgetown University and CSIS Senior Associate; and Janusz Bugajski, Director of the CSIS New European Democracies Project and Senior Fellow in the Europe Program. Read More.
This project focuses on Russia's policies toward the former satellite states of Eastern Europe since the collapse of the Soviet bloc. As a primary energy supplier to and through Eastern Europe, Russia will continue to be a major player in Europe for the foreseeable future. Russia will use its economic interests to exert political pressures or will endeavor to gain influence over the foreign and security policies of several nearby countries. An understanding of Russian objectives and strategies toward Eastern Europe helps to clarify the nature of the post-Soviet state and the direction of Russia's foreign policy. The subject of the project has far-reaching policy implications for the European Union and for the North Atlantic Alliance. Read More: