Ukraine tacked toward Russia ahead of the EU summit but the geopolitical contest for all three sides will likely intensify, says expert Jan Techau.

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.

Russian analyst Andrei A. Piontkovsky says the next U.S. president could face a more conciliatory policy from the Kremlin and new Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

Osama bin Laden’s killing helped spawn a crisis in Pakistan and left tough al-Qaeda-affiliated movements in the Mideast and Africa, says CFR’s Linda Robinson.

Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, says the West should be flexible enought to preserve political engagement with the Palestinian Authority.