Central Europe

Belarus border crisis marks dangerous escalation in Putin’s hybrid war

By Oleksiy Goncharenko

As tensions on the EU border with Belarus escalate, Europe is waking up to the fact that the man responsible for the crisis is not Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka but his patron Vladimir Putin.

Romania’s foreign minister on ‘bridging [the] connectivity gap’ with the Three Seas Initiative

By Atlantic Council

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania Bogdan Aurescu spoke at an Atlantic Council roundtable on security and cooperation in the Black Sea region.

Gangster tactics: Poland accuses Putin of masterminding Belarus border crisis

By Brian Whitmore

As the crisis on the EU's eastern border with Belarus continues to escalate, Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of masterminding the plot to weaponize illegal migrants.

Belarus border crisis: Lukashenka weaponizes human misery

By Daniel Fried, Michal Baranowski, Ben Judah

Kremlin-backed Belarus dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka has weaponized migrants from across the Middle East and is using them to create a border crisis in his escalating hybrid war against the EU.

Is liberalism ending its losing streak in Central Europe?

By Petr Tůma

The Czech opposition's victory could inspire other democratic forces across the region.

US anti-corruption crusade should focus on Europe’s east

By Janusz Bugajski

By making the fight against corruption a key US foreign policy priority, President Biden can counter the Kremlin's efforts to gain influence throughout Central and Eastern Europe via the exploitation of corruption.

Echoes of Hungary: What a former ambassador sees in the Afghanistan debacle

By András Simonyi

There is a sad correlation between the West’s failure to help Hungary and the events unfolding in Afghanistan.

Experts react: How far will Poland push away its friends?

By Atlantic Council

Poland's move against a critical television network fits into a pattern of criticized behavior by a one-time showcase of post-communist recovery.

State of the Order: Assessing July 2021

The State of the Order breaks down the month's most important events impacting the democratic world order.