A series of three conferences were held during the Spring of 2000 to discuss issues such as: environmental and sustainable initiatives in the Amazon Basin; the roles of local, national, and international actors; Brazil's national security agenda in relation to the Amazon Basin; and the rising threat of international drug trafficking. This volume is a compilation of papers presented. more

November 2004 - The purpose of this paper is to address two questions associated with Lithuania’s political crisis in 2004. First, what were the domestic circumstances that led to the impeachment of Lithuania’s President, Rolandas Paksas? Second, what evidence is there that Russia has played a significant role in the crisis and what are the motives behind Moscow’s meddling in Lithuania’s internal affairs? more

A conference was hosted on November 9, 2000 to discuss the implications of regional integration, drawing on the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) as a case study. This volume includes several papers presented at the conference that address MERCOSUR's development, economic and political importance, and efforts to effect a "relaunching" of the common market enterprise. more

This research project is motivated by a double empirical puzzle underlying the implications of NATO enlargement for the process of security community formation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). First, the development of institutional relationships between NATO and most of the former communist countries has led to ambiguous results in terms of reducing sources of political tension and military conflict (i.e., positive, in the case of Romania and Hungary or Hungary and Slovakia; inconclusive for Armenia and Azerbaijan; and negative for Belarus). Second, despite their relatively similar, constant and strong support for NATO membership, the countries of the region have demonstrated curious policy discrepancies, especially in contrast with the vast majority of long-term NATO members, when faced with the option of assisting certain NATO operations (i.e., the1999 military intervention in Kosovo). Accordingly, while the first empirical anomaly calls attention to possible NATO institutional effects, the second one hints to its potential normative influences. more