This monograph is intended to contribute to a more comprehensive debate on the Wider Europe and how the United States and the European Union (EU) can more effectively shape a successful Eastern Dimension. The Central-East European (CEE) capitals contend that without a realistic prospect for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and EU accession, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Georgia will increasingly become sources of domestic and regional instability and objects of Russia’s neo-imperialist ambitions. Such developments will negatively impact on U.S. strategic interests and have serious security implications for America’s new European allies. Washington needs to be closely engaged alongside...

The post-Soviet countries of Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia face serious obstacles to their Euro-Atlantic integration. Among the notable challenges and obstructions they will need to overcome areinternal political divisions and potential public opposition, the resistance of the Russian administration to further North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union (EU) expansion eastward, and the hesitation of EU and Allied capitals in offering clear membership prospects. In this inauspiciousenvironment, the Central-East European (CEE) countries, especially the new members of both NATO and theEU, have sought to develop credible policies for consolidating democratic reforms among their eastern neighbors, enhancing their prospects...

This section outlines the policies of the CEE states with regard to promoting the process of EU and NATO enlargement eastward. The approach of the CEE capitals is significant for the evolution of the Alliance and the Union, for the policies of specific NATO and EU member states, and for the national and strategic interests of the United States.

The CEE countries have sought to prevent any lasting divisions between themselves and the rest of Eastern Europe. In their calculations, barriers to their neighbor’s political, economic, and security integration would damage interstate relations, encourage Russian revanchism, and potentially destabilize a...

This section examines current EU, NATO, and U.S. policy toward the states of Eastern Europe that have not acceded to the two key Western institutions. It also explores how the prospect of either inclusion or exclusion from the EU and NATO may affect the progress of domestic reforms, the development of regional relations, and the growing role of Russia.

NATO membership has proved to be more easily achievable for candidate countries than EU accession for several reasons. The criteria for Alliance entry are more specific and achievable, as compared to the protracted transformations demanded of candidates for the EU. The...

This section will examine in more detail CEE policy toward four East European states—Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Georgia. It will describe how the new EU members have tried to leverage the EU, NATO, and the United States to adopt a more engaged and inclusive policy toward these countries and to invest more resources in building stable and prosperous democracies along the EU’s and NATO’s eastern borders. The strategic importance of the Black Sea region in particular, which is straddled by Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, has grown since the upsurge of international jihadist terrorism, the growing importance of energy supplies...

This section focuses on the varied policies pursued by the EU, NATO, the United States, and the Central-East European countries toward the Russian Federation. The lack of coherence and unity in the Euro-Atlantic approach toward a resurgent and authoritarian Russian administration has emboldened the Kremlin to push forward its regional agendas in order to reestablish zones of influence and dominance in post-communist Eastern Europe.

From Moscow’s perspective, the European CIS (including Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia) is as an important arena for regaining a broad sphere of dominance and projecting Russia’s rising international power toward Central and Western Europe and...

A fuller understanding of Europe’s ongoing evolution is essential for devising a long-term American strategy toward each country, toward the EU and NATO, and toward the wider region. Europe’s institutional development and the EU’s emerging foreign and security policies have direct implications for American security and the future role of U.S. armed forces in Europe and in nearby regions. By analyzing specific questions about EU and NATO policy and the limits to further enlargement and multinational integration, U.S. policymakers can enhance their understanding of broader trends in trans-Atlantic relations and devise more effective U.S. policy toward the older and newer...