View from the Ground challenges Georgetown University's talented, cosmopolitan and well-traveled student body to produce insightful articles about ahead-of-the-curve issues they have observed first-hand through internships, jobs or study abroad. The articles they contribute to the Journal allow both undergraduate and graduate students to fuse coursework with real-world experience and, most importantly, participate in the foreign affairs debate that the Journal endeavors to promote.

Participating in the Process:
The Importance of Civil Society in the Former Soviet

By Timothy Fairbank

Democratic revolutions are a rare sight. Seeing images of a massive sea of people protesting rigged elections and demand ing democracy and government accountability in Ukraine and Georgia, one cannot help but marvel at the political change taking place in these countries. Democracy, developed from the grassroots level, triumphed. How did this occur and what can other countries learn from it? Many analysts of the region immediately look at Moldova, Ukraine’s small neighbor and the next country in the region to have national elections, as possibly the next locale for political change. more...