SEBASTIAN BURDUJA is a sophomore majoring in Political Science and minoring in Economics. He is from Bucharest, Romania, and is interested in Romanian political and economic phenomena. This summer, he hopes to work with governmental officials as counselor in the Romanian Foreign Ministry of Affairs. Sebastian also plans to enroll in Stanford's program in Washington and in the International Policy Studies coterminal program. Sometime in the future, Sebastian hopes to return to Romania and become politically active, helping to speed up the country's democratic consolidation. He welcomes any comments, suggestions, and feedback on his work at tianu@stanford.edu.

MATTIAS ERIKSSON comes from Lund, Sweden where he earned a BA in East and Central European Studies and an MS in Industrial Management and Engineering from Lund University. Mattias studied and worked in Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan before attending Stanford where he is an MA candidate in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. He plans to work for the Swedish Trade Council in Moscow.

JACK KUECKER is a senior from Rockville, Maryland and is an International Relations major with an emphasis in Comparative Political and Historical Analysis. During his time abroad he studied in Florence, Italy and hopes to one day he return. As a senior he was captain of the Stanford Men's Ultimate Team.

REBECCA OSAKWE is a senior majoring in Economics with a minor in Russian Language. Her research interests include the economic and political aspects of the development of alternative energy sources. She plans to attend law school in the near future. Research for this piece was conducted in Moscow during the summer of 2005 with funds from an undergraduate research grant.

SEEPAN PARSEGHIAN is a junior from Los Angeles majoring in Political Science with a minor in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. His past research and public service experiences in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have inspired his interest in ethnic conflict and the phenomenon of unrecognized states. This summer, Seepan will be expanding his conflict resolution program in Karabakh, continuing his thesis research, and working for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the State Department. For his senior thesis through the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Seepan will be exploring and evaluating the performance of post-conflict state building processes in unrecognized states. Contact him at seepan07@stanford.edu.

MARK ROMANIW graduated from Georgetown University in 2005 with a Bachelor's degree in International Politics and a Certificate in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. He is currently enrolled in the Master's degree program at the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at Stanford University. Recently, he served as an international elections observer during the March 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary elections. He can be contacted at romaniw@stanford.edu.