Presentations

   

The Presentation of the Report “Georgian Lessons: Conflicting Russian and Western Interests in the Wider Europe”

On November 16, 2010 the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies hosted hosted the  public presentation of Janusz Bugajski’s new report: “Georgian Lessons: Conflicting Russian and Western Interests in the Wider Europe”. Mr. Bugajski is a Lavrentis Lavrentiadis Chair Director of New European Democracies Project and a Senior Fellow of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). During the event, he discussed his new report on the West-Russia relationship and Russian neo-imperial thrive in the wider Europe after the August war of 2008. The event was moderated by Alexander Rondeli, the President of the Foundation.

Mr Bugajski is a recipient of the Distinguished Public Service Award, granted jointly by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. He is a regular contributor to various U.S. and European newspapers and journals.

Mr. Bugajski opened the presentation with a brief overview of his new book and introduced its main arguments. He highlighted that Russia remains engaged in a strategic competition with the West, in which it has several long-term goals. These include restoring Russia’s global reach, undermining U.S. prevalence, dividing the NATO alliance, neutralizing the European Union, preventing further NATO enlargement to the East, and re-establishing zones of influence around Russia’s borders with vassal governments dependent on the Kremlin.  Mr. Bugajski concluded that the 2008 Russo-Georgia War draws some critical lessons for the West and calls for more vigorous, substantial, and coordinated U.S, EU and NATO assistance and collaboration with all countries in the Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Mr. Bugajski devoted a considerable amount of the presentation time to a Question and Answer session and eagerly answered a number of questions from the audience. The attendees included analysts, experts, diplomats, journalists and students.