Case Studies You need the RealVideo™ Player to view the videos, which are desiginated by the video icon (). The player is free, and can be downloaded by clicking the button below. Russia and Chechnya One of the most stunning political developments of the Twentieth Century was the collapse of the Soviet Union. Is the "new" Russia really that different from the "old" Soviet Union? One of the best indicators may be found in the Russian action in Chechnya. China and Hong Kong: Emergence of a Communist Empire? Handover Preparations The year is 1997. After maintaining control of Hong Kong for over one hundred and fifty years, Great Britain prepares to return control of Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong, comprised of a little over four hundred square miles and six and a half million people, has become a bastion of freedom on the southern coast of China. The shift of power from Britain to China is a delicate and controversial matter. The symbolism is extraordinary. One of the crown jewels of the capitalist world is to become the property of the greatest remaining communist state. The change is not a simple one, however. It will be a complex combination of old and new, of East and West. China has pledged an objective of "one country, two systems," in which Hong Kong will continue to exist as a financial and trade center for at least fifty years. On the political front Hong Kong’s democratically elected legislature has been disbanded and replaced by a provisional body that will be responsive to the Chinese. A Chief Executive has been appointed for Hong Kong, a business tycoon named Tung Chee-hwa. Like the new legislature, Tung takes his orders from Beijing. The Chinese have promised that elections will be held in Hong Kong in 2008, after Tung’s term has expired. Ominously, the Chinese have also issued statements that political expression in Hong Kong will have to be curtailed, hardly a surprising development for a nation that massacred its own people at Tiananmen Square less than a decade before.