On 3-4 December, around 250 experts gathered in Antalya, Turkey, at a major international security conference entitled “The New Strategic Concept and NATO towards Year 2020”. Participants included high level officials, international security experts, opinion formers and diplomats from Turkey and other NATO member and partner countries, as well as representatives from the media and Atlantic Treaty Associations. READ MORE

On 8 December in Vilnius, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis and Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Girts Valdis Kristovskis discussed bilateral relations, common issues of energy security policy and promotion of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation. READ MORE

A few years ago it was common to refer to Russia as an "energy superpower". High global energy prices prior to the global financial crisis and Russia's control over Central Asian oil and gas exports underscored the seemingly irrefutable proposition of Moscow's influence. READ MORE

President Dmitri A. Medvedev ofRussia awarded the Order of Friendship this week to Andrzej Wajda, the celebrated Polish film director, an event few Poles or Russians could have imagined taking place. READ MORE

In its decade-long slog to secure Afghanistan, the United States has juggled contradictory foreign policies in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the fragile Central Asian states with key supporting roles in the war. There’s the policy of engaging the two post-Soviet states for their own sake, promoting good governance, human rights, and business ties – the usual grab-bag of US diplomacy. Then there’s the policy of using them as logistical hubs in the Afghanistan war. READ MORE