Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose party won last week's parliamentary elections in Georgia, will forge a foreign policy based on pragmatism, not ideology, says RFE/RL's Elizabeth Fuller.
One year after its war with Russia, Georgia is dispirited and unsure of its future. Has the United States staked too much on this small, fractured country in the Caucasus?
Veteran Eurasia expert Steven Pifer says Vice President Joseph Biden's trip to Ukraine and Georgia was meant to balance President Barack Obama's Moscow summit earlier in the month, but in both countries, Biden had to convey tough messages.
Steven Pifer, an expert on Russian affairs and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, says U.S.-Russia relations have "deteriorated significantly" since their high point just after 9/11. The next U.S. administration should return to negotiations on limiting strategic arms and other areas of mutual interest, he says.
Georgian Vice Prime Minister Georgi Baramidze says Western support is vital for sustaining his country's economy and democracy after the loss of two separatist areas in a war with Russia.
Robert E. Hunter, a former U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, says Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili miscalculated by sending troops into South Ossetia in mid-August, but in the end, "Russia is the loser here."
F. Stephen Larrabee, an expert on NATO and Eastern Europe, says Russia's invasion of Georgia was an effort to limit "Western influence into the former Soviet space."
As tensions between Russia and the West mount over the military conflict in Georgia, some analysts worry about the collapse of arms control agreements.
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The author analyzes the potentially serious consequences, both at home and abroad, of a lightly overseen drone program and makes recommendations for improving its governance.