In the February issue of Diplomacy magazine, political scientist Paul A. Goble analyses the recent structural changes in the US State Department, namely the appearance, for the first time, of a separate desk for Estonia within the Office of Nordic-Baltic Affairs of the Department’s Bureau of European Affairs.

English Summary

In the February issue of Diplomacy magazine, political scientist Paul A. Goble analyses the recent structural changes in the US State Department, namely the appearance, for the first time, of a separate desk for Estonia within the Office of Nordic-Baltic Affairs of the Department’s Bureau of European Affairs.
In his opinion, this seemingly minor development is actually of great significance: “The end of the tradition of a Baltic desk, however small an event it may seem to others, marks a new American recognition of the diversity of this region as well as a reaffirmation of the American understanding of just how different the three states are here both individually and collectively from the post-Soviet states. That may sound like a small thing, like something that everyone should understand intuitively. But it is not a small thing: it is something that must constantly be insisted upon. Estonia can thus list a third foreign policy victory for the year just passed.”
Marianne Mikko, the Head of the European Parliament’s Moldova delegation writes about the frozen conflict in Moldova’s separatist Transnistria province. She concludes that Estonia — both individually and as a member of the EU – can do a lot to help solve the conflict, but ultimately Moldova’s future success depends on the country itself: “Taking example from Estonia who didn’t get stuck on its way to joining the EU because of insecurity or the absence of a border treaty with Russia, the Moldovans have to start reforming their country, developing the economy and harmonize its legislation with that of the EU regardless of the crises in Transnistria.”
Gert Antsu, the Head of the European Affairs Division at the Estonian State Chancellery offers a wider overview of Estonia’s interests as a member of the European Union.
George Blazyca, a professor of European economics at the University of Paisley in Scotland, UK, discusses why all the Central and Eastern European countries joined without hesitation the US-led “coalition of the willing” for the war in Iraq. He uses the case of Poland as a basis of his detailed analyses and suggests that now, when the Iraq-adventure has not turned out to be the kind of success the regional leaders hoped it to be, they might redirect some of their loyalty that hitherto has belonged to Washington to the EU. Hopefully, this will lead to these countries to focus their foreign political efforts more on Europe’s new neighbours like Ukraine and Belarus, rather than on far-away and exotic Iraq.