Though the concept of global supranational power remains a vague and controversial concept, it is worth discussing, moreover that “supranational power” in Lithuania’s academic and political space and possibilities of its realization have not yet been widely discussed.

Today Lithuania and Poland experience notable crisis in their relationship. Therefore it is strange to hear the words of Laurynas Jonavičius, adviser to the Lithuanian President on foreign policy issues, that „bilateral relations are not bad in general“ and that Lithuanian-Polish relations are „working relations“. What is the real situation?

On the eve of each election traditional passions are inflamed over the "global confrontation" between Russiaand the U.S. But if to look at both states with unbiased external view, it becomes evident that great French philosopher Raymon Aron was right when half a century ago in his "Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations" called Russia and the U.S. "the enemy partners".

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), established in 1991 after the collapse of the USSR, celebrated its 20^th anniversary (8 December 2011). The initial aim of the organization was to mitigate the consequences of the collapse of USSR, and promote cooperation among former USSR republics. Unfortunately the CIS didn’t manage to become an effective commonwealth of the brotherly states.

Various methods, indicators and indexes (e.g. GDP per capita, inflation, unemployment rate, Human Development Index etc.) are used to measure the national economic and social performance and welfare of inhabitants, i.e. to define the quality of life in different countries.

Even the organizers of the plebiscite have hardly expected that results of the referendum in Latvia (18 February) would result in the amendments to the Constitution that would make Russian a second official language. In fact, more than 75 percent of the Latvian electorate said NO to this initiative.

The Eastern Partnership Policy was officially launched in 2009 following the initiative of the Swedish and Polish foreign ministers Carl Bildt and Radoslaw Sikorski, and was supposed to become the main factor shaping the relationship between the EU and its Eastern neighbors, and contribute to the establishment of a sound EU neighborhood space.

In Turkey, where the military was one of the main factors of national stability since the times of Kemal Ataturk, the arrest of a former commander of Armed Forces Ilker Bashbut has been extended. In the Ergenekon case where more than one hundred suspects have been taken into custody, he was accused on allegations of plotting a coup against the R.T.Erdogan government.

The contemporary Afghanistan could be described as the country on the shaky and rocky path of nation building. What is more, this path is so full of challenges that the new riders could easily abort the journey towards new and prosperous Afghanistan future. Such a description comes in my mind after some time spent in one of mountainous regions of that country.

The economy of Kazakhstan is the largest economy in Central Asia (CA). Soon the country will celebrate the 20^thanniversary of its Independence (16 December 1991). What happened in the country during these years and what does Lithuania and Kazakhstan have in common?

The statement about the news from the border of China and Finland is oxymoron, without any doubt. However, the title does show a certain tendency: even extreme scenarios should not be rejected in the confused globalization.

In September Beijing released a policy document laying out its vision for the country’s future up to the year 2047 when People’s Republic of China will celebrate its 100^th anniversary.

Relations of Afghanistan and Pakistan are rather complicated and this is mostly due to the ambiguous foreign policy of the states. The impact of civil authorities of both countries on own territories is limited. Especially in Afghanistan where administration of President Hamid Karzai practically has no impact on certain remote provinces, differently from terror groupings. Situation in Pakistan is different, here the power is in the hands of the army.

In October, on the eve of a new election cycle, Russian daily "Izvestia" published the article by Vladimir Putin „A New Integration Project for Eurasia – The Future Is Born Today”. This article has been subject to scrutiny abroad and the main comment was that Putin was getting prepared for restoration of the Soviet Union, though he assured that “…we are not talking about recreating the USSR in one form or another”.

During the G20 meeting in Cannes on November 3–4 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that his country will participate in supporting the crisis-stricken euro zone countries via the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In return Russia didn’t require the EU to make concessions in the dispute on energy, but did expect recognition in international financial organizations, including the IMF.

At about 4 p.m, Friday, 28, 2011, a young man Mevlid Jasarevic (23) from the city of Novi Pazar (a city and municipality located in southwest Serbia, in the Rashka District), armed with an assault rifle (“Kalashnikov”) with three spare rounds opened fire near the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo, the capital of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He fired shots at the building with five boxes of ammunition (each containing thirty 7,2 mm caliber bullets), but finally was wounded in the leg and arrested.

For effective complex defence of Latvia, the establishment of a permanent division of the National Armed Forces has started in Latgale, reported the official website of the Ministry of Defence.

On 13 January a concert "Together to the victory" was held in Lithuania, where the audience decided to support Ukraine's defence and donated 110 thousand Euros.

Alexander Lukashenko on 9 January signed a decree № 8 "On the establishment of visa-free entry and exit of foreign nationals." The document establishes visa-free entry to Belarus for a period not exceeding 5 days at the entrance through the checkpoint "National Airport Minsk" for citizens of 80 countries, - reported the press service of the President of Belarus.