From the Miami Herald: Europe is not yet whole, free or at peace. Throughout wider Europe other walls remain — historical animosities, ethnic hatreds, struggles for power and control. Festering tensions can explode, as we discovered in the Balkans and again last year when Russia clashed with Georgia.

Successful reforms could resonate significantly across the post-Soviet space and into the broader Middle East. Failures risk destabilizing competition and confrontation. And whenever we have ignored the twilight zones of Europe, we have always paid a higher price later.

By Daniel Hamilton, Richard von Weizsdcker Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and Director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations. (photo: Lionel Cironneau/AP)