After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the former Eastern bloc began emerging from its communist past, with 10 Central and Eastern European countries joining the European Union (EU) since 2004. The EU-10 -- as they are called -- have embraced a bold new course in foreign policy, focusing solidly on the West with their allegiances resolutely bound up with the EU and NATO. Democracy has gained a foothold in the so-called New Europe, and the region's enthusiastic adoption of free-market policies has spurred faster growth. But it has had its dark side too: Large-scale westward emigration has robbed their economies of many of their best and brightest and strained relations with their new European partners. In addition, former Soviet satellites in the region also harbor growing apprehension about estranged "Big Brother" Russia's intentions under the increasingly authoritarian President Vladimir Putin.

Brian Beary -- a freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C. -- specializes in EU-U.S. affairs and is the U.S. correspondent for Europolitics, the EU affairs daily newspaper. Originally from Dublin, Ireland, he worked in the European Parliament for Irish MEP Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher in 2000 and at the EU Commission's "Eurobarometer" unit on public opinion analysis. A fluent French speaker, he appears regularly as a guest international relations expert on various television and radio program. Apart from his work for Congressional Quarterly, Beary also writes for the European Parliament Magazine and the Irish Examiner daily newspaper.