• The major in Central European studies combines a background in relevant languages (Russian plus either German or Polish, or more intensive study of Russian) with course work in international relations and the history, culture, and politics of the region.
  • No longer an imperial backwater, Central Europe has risen from its Cold War stasis to become one of the world’s most dynamic and important regions. Stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Balkan Peninsula, and from the Eastern lands of Germany to the Western regions of Russia, this onetime great-power battleground is now a vital trade and energy corridor, a mosaic of languages and cultures, a place of both successful state-building and persistent ethnic frictions, and a promising but still-precarious bridge between the former Soviet Union and the West. Central Europe rivals the Far East and Southwest Asia as one of the world’s most strategically important regions — now, and over the coming decades.