We are happy to present for your attention the second issue of 2012. In Lithuania the second half of the year was marked by a political shift to the centreleft. After parliamentary elections in October 2012, a new coalition headed by the Social Democrats was formed. The era of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius was over. It is worth mentioning that the government headed by Mr. Kubilius was the only one since 1990 to have worked a full four-year term.

Another big task for the new government is preparation for the forthcoming Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2013. This will be the biggest challenge so far for all Lithuanian institutions. In the context of hard debates and postponed decisions on the 2014–2020 EU financial framework, this challenge becomes even tougher.

This issue of Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review has a very broad scope of topics to offer, from the experience of the Polish EU Presidency to the regional politics of China. We start with a comprehensive analysis of cross-border cooperation between Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast. The article by Miłosz J. Zieliński titled Cross-border Cooperation between Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast in the Context of Polish-Russian Relations in 2004–2011 takes into account both interstate and regional circumstances and concentrates on several aspects: Poland’s attitude towards Kaliningrad right after the 2004 EU enlargement; ideas/proposals about how to improve trans-border co-operation under new (i.e. Poland being an EU member) circumstances; austerity of bilateral contacts (at both the interstate and regional scale); the process of negotiating, signing and ratifying the SBTA; and prospects for future co-operation. As the author formulates, his aim is to give a brief picture of eight years of Polish-Kaliningrad relations after Poland joined the European Union.

The article Chinese State Policies towards Tibet and Xinjiang: Why not the Hong Kong Scenario? by Lina Kutkauskaitė investigates what influences a state’s choice of methods to resolve its territorial integrity issues and China’s strategies towards Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong in particular (or, to be more specific, what causes the differences between these strategies). The author compares Chinese state policies in four areas — politics, economics, culture and foreign policy — and tries to reveal what the differences between the Chinese approaches towards the three regions are. In the article a framework of analysis based on a modification of Milton Esman’s theory is developed and applied to define how the selected factors influence China’s policies towards the three regions and which of them were the ones determining the PRC’s choice of different methods.

Evelina Venckutė contributes to this issue with an article about the rhetoric side of the so-called ‘reset’ policy in the relationship between the USA and Russia. The article The Idea of a US-Russian ‘Reset’ in the Rhetoric of Political Leaders aims to elucidate the conceptualisation of a ‘reset’ in US-Russian relations through the analysis of the public rhetoric of political leaders. The analysis is based on the theory of social constructivism, which accentuates the significance of rhetorical analysis in ascertaining the ideas constituting the basis of foreign policy making. A comparison of perceptions is implemented by applying the methods of thematic content analysis and discourse analysis. Four categorical dimensions that focus on the attitudes of political leaders towards the reasons, interests, challenges and expectations of the ‘reset’ are identified. In her analysis Venckutė reveals some categories and subjects where the main divergences and similarities of perceptions emerge.

This year Lithuania and Russia commemorated the 20th anniversary of bilateral relations, established by the entry into force of the Treaty between the Republic of Lithuania and the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic on the Basis for Relations Between States. This treaty was signed in Moscow on 29 July 1991 and is still one of the fundamental documents describing Lithuanian-Russian relations. Rytis Satkauskas provides the article Expired Friendship? Some Aspects of Validity and tries to look closer at the contents of the treaty and the controversies concerning its significance, and even validity, that have occurred during its time in force. The author states that questions concerning the interpretation of some of its provisions must be answered to ensure the continued application of the treaty.