Margarita M. Balmaceda is Associate Professor in the John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University, and an Associate of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and of the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University. Her numerous publications on Russian, post-Soviet and East European politics include On the Edge: the Ukrainian-Central European-Russian Security Triangle (2000) and Independent Belarus: Domestic Determinants, Regional Dynamics and Implications for the West (2002). She has taught and conducted research extensively in the Central-East European region, including through Fulbright and other grants in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary and Lithuania.