Journal of International Studies

Two years after the Polish presidential plane crash and the initial Russian-Polish rapprochement , the process of reconciliation has visibly stagnated. The Polish opposition accused the government, and the Russians, of having engineered the crash at Smolensk. Prime Minister Tusk got scared and preferred to stay passive in front of the absurd accusations. Moscow rejected even minimal responsibility of the Russian ground controllers in the affair. Apparently trying to keep the investigation suspended so as not to give more ammunition to the Polish opposition, Russia has still not returned the wreckage of the Polish presidential plane to Warsaw. True, there still have been notable achievements such as the agreement allowing for visa-free travel  in the border areas, which include Kaliningrad and Gdansk, as well as regular trilateral meetings among the foreign ministers of Russia, Poland, and Germany. Yet, with the Civic Platform doing now badly in the polls, a return of PiS to govern...

Central Europe is scared, desperate, ambitious, complex-ridden, and obsessed with the past. Is it also the future of Europe? I have been to all the big conferences on Central Europe this year:  GLOBSEC  in Bratislava, the  Snow Meeting  near Vilnius, the  Wrocław Global Forum , the  Rīga Conference , the  U.S.-Central European Strategy Forum  in Washington. Being a smug Western European, like most think tankers, I was deeply disturbed by my own ignorance about that strangely vibrant area that arches across the continent from the Baltic states, through Poland, down to  Bulgaria . So I decided to pay a little more attention. Having attended all of these eminent gatherings, I am still far from an expert on the region. I never will be. But it is clear that this part of Europe is special. First of all, Central Europe is still home to both almost unconditional love for the United States and real, hopeful ambition for the EU. Naturally...