Why the West should embrace Moldova (with Oana Serafim)

Giselle and Dalibor are joined by Iulia and guest Oana Serafim, former Director of Moldovan Service for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, live from Bucharest, Romania. Oana brings her personal connection to Moldova and nearly thirty years of expertise in Eastern European media to The Eastern Front Podcast. While Moldova is not a part of the European Union nor NATO, and historically has partly remained within the Russian sphere of influence, Moldova applied for European Union Membership in March 2022 (after Russia's invasion of Ukraine). Moldovan struggles with a frozen conflict in Transnistria, heavy Russian propaganda, and political forces debating between the East and West should remind the West that "history is never [in the] past," as Oana notes, and Eastern European politics must be understood with nuance. Oana unpacks how the perceived East/West divide is growing, how this impacts developing countries like Moldova, and how countries within Russia's backyard like Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia must be embraced by the West.

Om Podcasten

Ensuring the balance of power in Europe has, since the inception of our republic, been a core security interest for the US. Today, and for the entire post-Cold War period, the challenges to the European peace have emerged along the line running roughly from the Baltic to the Black Sea. This is what we call the Eastern Front. Our goal in this podcast is to better inform the American people about what’s going on there. Join us, Iulia Joja and Dalibor Rohac every week on in our discussions on what’s next for “The Eastern Front.”