It is not difficult to see why the China-initiated “16+1” platform, grouping together China and 16 countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), has been perceived as an esoteric one. While Central and Eastern Europe commonly refers to the part of the Europe with a shared communist past, the countries in this region have never […]
As a cornerstone of a market economy, information has a value that cannot be ignored. Trade in consumer goods will remain relevant for China’s regional strategy and for the One Belt, One Road strategy, but more emphasis should be given to the market for ideas. Some have argued that the Internet has made human communication […]
Since the so-called Visegrad Four—the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia—shook off the Soviet yoke and topped a decade of successful political and economic reform by rejoining the West in its most exclusive clubs, the European Union and NATO, they have begun to pursue their own objectives, and they have distinguished themselves as actors on […]
Margaret Thatcher was much more respected outside Britain than she was in her own country. In the United States, but also in Central Europe, she is recognized as a hero, especially in the fight for economic and political freedom. That vision of freedom and dynamism was never really all that popular – or understood – by […]
If you want to know what Russia, China or Iran will do next, don’t read their newspapers or ask what our spies have dug up—consult a map. Geography can reveal as much about a government’s aims as its secret councils. More than ideology or domestic politics, what fundamentally defines a state is its place on […]
looking beyond borders 