A wider Europe: the view from Minsk and Chisinau

The expansion of NATO and the enlargement of the EU will produce outside st ates in which perceptions and policies will be influenced by feelings of ex clusion and isolation. Building on an earlier article published in Internat ional Affairs (January 2000) On Russia and Ukraine, this article analyses t wo countries 'inbetween' in which these feelings are particularly strong. B elarus and Moldova, two classic borderlands, are small, new states with bor ders not of their own choosing and Little sense of identity. Their economie s are in dire straits and each has a large problem that hampers European in tegration. For Belarus the problem is its president; for Moldova it is the separatist regime controlling It per cent of its territory. Based on elite interviews, opinion surveys and the analysis of focus group discussions, th is article compares and contrasts the attitudes towards NATO and the EU in these two countries.