The Latvian Institute of International Affairs in cooperation with its partners published the following publications:
From the Vilnius Summit to the Riga Summit: Challenges and Opportunities of the Eastern Partnership is a discussion paper by Irina Kuzņecova, Diāna Potjomkina and Mārtiņš Vargulis providing a general analysis of each of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) partner countries, their respective relations with the EU and the direction and depth of the “Europeanization” process. Paper illustrates current and long term challenges for the EU that could slow down the development of the EaP initiative as a whole.
Latvian Visa Free Border Zones With Russia And Belarus: What Are They And Why – the working paper by Andrei Yeliseyeu (analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies). Analysis looks into the specifics of the Latvian local border traffic (LBT) regimes with Belarus and Russia, presents characteristics of the border areas under the Latvian LBTs and gives a graphic representation of the respective Latvian regions.
Opinions
LIIA Fellow Raimonds Rublovskis in several analysis has continued to contribute to the discussions on global and Latvian security developments and challenges:
– The Future of Conventional Arms Control in Europe – the state of conventional arms control framework and its decisive role in European security;
– Smart Power in the Global Security Environment of the 21st Century – the role of ‘smart power’ within current global security environment;
– Approaches to Conflict Resolution in the OSCE Area – current and new approaches to conflict resolution in the OSCE area.
Deputy Director of LIIA Kārlis Bukovskis in his analysis examines possible scenarios of Latvia’s post-euro foreign policy challenges and is “Picturing Latvia on the Global Marketing Map” while providing an option for the next foreign policy goal for Latvia;
LIIA Fellow Mārtiņš Vargulis analyses the ‘geopolitical battle’ of great powers over the Arctic region and potential gains and challenges for Latvia in the big game played in high North.
Associate Fellow Anna Beitāne recently has provided analysis on various topics:
– The Disappointment of the Rapprochement: Why Obama’s ‘Reset’ with Russia Went Wrong? – possible reasons behind the unsuccessful attempts to reset US-Russian relations and escalation of tensions between two countries in the context of Syrian crisis;
– Russia’s ‘Milk’ War with Lithuania – correlation between Russian trade wars and geopolitics in the case of recent;
– Navalny’s ‘I have a dream’ Moment in Moscow’s Mayoral Election – the results of recent Moscow’s mayoral elections and its aftermath for both the Kremlin and Navalny;
LIIA Fellow Diāna Potjomkina examines two recent reports on Belarus prepared by the European Parliament and by the USAID, asking – what do we really know about Belarus, and how?