Analysing international policy processes and Lithuania’s role in them

Publications

Policy analysts and researchers at the Eastern Europe Studies Centre (EESC) regularly publish publications on international policy processes and Lithuania’s role in them. These include studies, reviews and bulletins on current affairs in Central and Eastern Europe. You are welcome to read and download the studies and reviews.

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Review Nov 21, 2023
Minsk Express. Power and vertical in Belarus

In this episode, Brian Whitmore of the Atlantic Council shares his take on deconstructing the power vertical in Belarus. What is the Lukashenka dilemma? Will the Kremlin incorporate Belarus? What can the West do to release over 1,500 political prisoners in Belarus? And what makes Lukashenka’s power vertical so unique?

Review Nov 07, 2023
China review 2023-9. 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative

On September 28, the U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Centre (GEC) released a special report on how China seeks to reshape the global information environment. In the report China was accused of employing “a variety of deceptive and coercive methods … to influence the international information environment.” As a response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry pushed back hard against the report, accusing the United States of being an “empire of lies” and adding that “it is the US that invented the weaponizing of the global information space.”

Raigirdas Boruta Elzė Pinelytė
Review Nov 07, 2023
Minsk Express. Belarus in the world of autocracies

In the new episode of the Minsk Express podcast, Professor Elena Korosteleva of Warwick University presents a new book “Belarus in the Twenty-First Century. Between Dictatorship and Democracy” and shares insight on how Belarus looks in the context of emerging autocracies around the world. How exportable is Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s autocratic rule. Is there any prospect for Belarusian Studies and for Belarus itself? 

Review Oct 31, 2023
More than a year with the war, sanctions and crisis: The change of Eastern Partnership countries’ energy dependence on Russia in 2022–2023

Europe has long relied on Russian energy resources. This was often based on the convenience that the interdependence that was to emerge from intensive trade would allow Russia to become a player abiding by international rules. This belief collapsed when the West began to impose sanctions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Saulius Rimutis
Review Oct 27, 2023
Minsk Express. Geopolitical calculus of Lukashenka today

In the first episode of the third season of Minsk Express, we discuss the geopolitical setting of Belarus today and its place on the political agenda in the West. What is the impact of Belarusian democratic forces on changing the situation on the ground? How has the dramatic increase of the Belarusian diaspora around the world affected the country? What are the prospects of change in Belarus? And finally, how does Russia’s war in Ukraine change Lukashenka’s calculus?

Review Oct 11, 2023
China’s Tepid Reaction to Hamas Invasion Shows that its Moral Compass is Broken

Some would say that China’s moral compass already broke in February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine and China did not condemn the war while maintaining its pro-Kremlin neutrality. But is neutrality the best Beijing can do now in the face of unequivocal evidence of inhumane barbarity by Palestinian terrorists against Israelis in violation of all humanitarian and international law?

Elzė Pinelytė
Review Oct 04, 2023
China review 2023-8. Panic over Fukushima’s monstrosities

Real-life Godzilla, two-headed fish and other abnormal creatures – that is what you would find in the Pacific Ocean right now if you were to succumb to China’s disinformation campaign against Japan’s decision to discharge treated wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Raigirdas Boruta Elzė Pinelytė
Review Sep 04, 2023
China review 2023-7. Head in the sand

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that it will suspend the publication of youth unemployment data while the government seeks to “improve” and “optimize” statistical work. This announcement elicited decision on Chinese social media, with some users on Weibo accusing the government of “burying its head in the sand”. Indeed, the announcement comes at a critical juncture when the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds in urban areas hit a record high of 21.3%. However, instead of addressing the drastically worsening youth unemployment, the government has chosen to stonewall the issue.

Raigirdas Boruta Elzė Pinelytė
Research Aug 17, 2023
EU Defence Cooperation with Ukraine

The Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, in cooperation with the EESC and the SCEEUS, has compiled a study on European - Ukrainian defence cooperation. The paper is accompanied by commentaries from various European experts.