The war in Georgia has spurred public squabbling reminiscent of the Cold War, pitting the West against Russia.
Yet, especially at a time of global financial crisis, it is not in either side's interest to let the situation get out of hand.
How has the war in Georgia affected possibilities for cooperation among Russia, the European Union, and the United States? Are the EU and OSCE peacekeepers and observers playing a valuable role?
How has the Georgian conflict affected the critical oil and gas pipelines that traverse the Caucasus?
Have Moscow's actions in Georgia contributed to the exodus of foreign capital and the plunge in the Russian stock market?
What are the chances for NATO membership action plans for either Georgia or Ukraine?- World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C.
Bio
Anders Aslund
Anders Aslund has been a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute since 2006. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. He examines the economies of Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, as well as focuses on the broader implications of economic transition. He worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 1994 to 2005, first as a senior associate and then from 2003 as director of the Russian and Eurasian Program.
He also worked at the Brookings Institution and the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies. He earned his doctorate from Oxford University.
Aslund served as an economic adviser to the governments of Russia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. He was a professor at the Stockholm School of Economics and the founding director of the Stockholm Institute of East European Economics. He worked as a Swedish diplomat in Kuwait, Poland, Geneva, and Moscow. He is a member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and an honorary professor of the Kyrgyz National University. He is co-chairman of the board of trustees of the Kyiv School of Economics and chairman of the Advisory Council of the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE), Warsaw.
He is the author of eight books, including Russia's Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed (2007), How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2007), Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc (Cambridge University Press, 2001), How Russia Became a Market Economy (Brookings, 1995), Gorbachev's Struggle for Economic Reform, 2d ed. (Cornell University Press, 1991), and Private Enterprise in Eastern Europe (Macmillan, 1985). He is also editor or coeditor of 13 books, including Challenges of Globalization: Macroeconomic Imbalances and Development Models, Europe after Enlargement, and Revolution in Orange (Carnegie Endowment, 2006).
Michael Haltzel
Michael Haltzel is Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
Dr. Haltzel capped a distinguished career in public service as senior foreign policy advisor (1994-2005) to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-Delaware), Ranking Member (Chairman 2001-03) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as Democratic Staff Director of the Subcommittee on European Affairs of the Committee.
Dr. Haltzel went to the Senate in 1994 from the Library of Congress and from 1985 to 1992, he served as Director of West European Studies of the Woodrow Wilson Center at the Smithsonian Institution. He previously taught Russian and German History at Hamilton College and was Vice President for Academic Affairs at Longwood College. In 1975-78, Dr. Haltzel helped launch the Aspen Institute Berlin as its first Deputy Director.
Dr. Haltzel has been awarded the Grand Cross of Commander of the Order of Grand Duke Gediminas by Lithuania, the Star of Romania by Romania, the Knighthood of the Royal Order of the Polar Star by Sweden, the Officer's Cross Order of Merit by Hungary, the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver by Austria, and the Three Star Order by Latvia.
He received a B.A. magna cum laude with honors in history from Yale, an M.A. in Soviet Studies and a Ph.D. in history, both from Harvard.
Eugene Rumer
Eugene Rumer is a senior fellow at National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies.
Paul J Saunders
Paul J. Saunders is Executive Director of The Nixon Center. In addition to being the Center's chief operating officer, he directs its U.S. - Russian Relations Program and works on other issues, including energy and climate change, U.S. - European relations, and the role of democracy in U.S. foreign policy.
He is also Associate Publisher of the foreign policy magazine, The National Interest, published bi-monthly by The Nixon Center, and Publisher of National Interest online.
Mr. Saunders served in the Bush Administration from 2003- 2005 as Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs. In that capacity, he worked on a broad range of transnational issues, in particular with respect to Russia, Ukraine, the former Soviet Union, as well as Iraq, China and India.
Mr. Saunders served as Director of The Nixon Center from 1997 - 2003, and was Assistant Director of the Center from its founding in 1994 until 1997. In 2000, he was a Senior Policy Advisor to the Speaker's Advisory Group on Russia, established by the Republican Policy Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He has written extensively for major newspapers and journals, and is a frequent commentator in national media, including CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. Mr. Saunders is the author of Russian Energy and European Security, Common Challenges: A U.S.-European-Japanese Dialogue on Energy Security and Climate Change, and America, Russia and the Greater Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities (with Nixon Center Program Director Geoffrey Kemp).
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