The Cold War ended — at least in the traditional sense — with Russia’s move away from the Soviet Union and communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall. But that clearly hasn’t eliminated tension in Eastern Europe and the need for additional security through collaborations like NATO.
And the expansion of NATO was something that was sought by a number of nations earlier this century.
Seven of those nations, including Latvia, were given membership in 2004. One of the driving forces behind that was Latvia’s first female President Vaira Vike-Freiberga. She is “in residence” in the Valley until March as part of Barrett, The Honors College at ASU’s Distinguished Global Leaders series. She joined us in studio recently.
