After the European Union's intervention in the August 2008 Russo-Georgian war, the EU has stepped up the visibility of its involvement in the South Caucasian state. Its political, economic and manpower engagement is now vital to the country's prosperity and stability. The Eastern Partnership, launched in May 2009, is a further signal of the EU's commitment to the countries on its Eastern borders. However, the new initiative is insufficient to tackle the roots of Georgia's secessionist problems. Indeed, these prove to be more complicated than the Russia vs. Georgia conception that Tbilisi subscribes to. The Union needs to establish a genuine conflict policy to complement the bilateral and multilateral framework of the EaP. Furthermore, the Union's member states need to apply themselves to the EaP's elaboration in order to ensure the project's success; otherwise it risks becoming an empty gesture rather than a viable tool for the development of the EU's partners in the region.

Russie.Nei.Visions is a digital collection of policy papers published in French, English, and Russian by the Russia/NIS Center at Ifri.

This paper is an attempt to picture the African entrepreneurs and their activities today in China. It aims at counterbalancing the current debates on Sino-African relations which tend to only emphasize the increasing presence of the Chinese - and Chinese products - on the African continent.

India"s conscious shift in the early 1990s from an inward-looking development strategy to a globalized market-based approach resulted in significant changes in its foreign investment policy. Till the 1990s, the policy was heavily restrictive with majority foreign equity permitted only in a handful export-oriented, high technology industries. Outward-oriented reforms radically changed such perceptions with foreign investment policy becoming progressively liberal following steady withdrawal of external capital controls and simplification of procedures.

Russia's military intervention in Georgia in August 2008 sent a shock wave across the post-Soviet space, particularly the republics to the west and south of Russia. In December 2008, the European Union formalized the Eastern Partnership initiative, directed at Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. In order to understand the impact of this war both on Russia's bilateral relations with these countries and on the Eastern Partnership area as a whole, this article analyzes the reactions of these former Soviet republics to the Russian offensive. Three types of response are observed: keeping distance from Russia; maintaining a balance between Moscow and the West; and, finally, changing course (from rapprochement to keeping a distance and vice-versa) vis-à-vis the former center of the Soviet Empire.