Centre for Eastern Studies

The Centre for Eastern Studies (Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich, OSW) is a Warsaw-based think tank that undertakes independent research on the political, economic and social situation in Central and Eastern Europe, Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia.

The centre was founded in 1990 and is fully financed from the Polish state budget. In 2006 the centre was named in honour of its founder.

The OSW is the largest of the European Union’s think tanks to focus its research on the part of Europe which until 1989 had been separated from the West by the Iron Curtain.

The centre is particularly active in debates concerning the European Union's policy towards its Eastern neighbours (European Neighbourhood Policy, Eastern Partnership), challenges to energy security in Europe, as well as the political, social and economic transformation of countries neighbouring Poland.

Staff and work groups
The OSW employs over 50 research fellows.

The centre's director is Wojciech Konończuk.

There are five research units and a few single specialists (in energy policy and military aspects of international security):
 * Russian Department
 * Department of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova
 * Department of Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia
 * Central Europe Department
 * Department for Germany and Northern Europe

Publications
Most of the OSW publications are available free of charge at the centre's web site, both in Polish and English (including "Policy Briefs", "OSW Studies" and "OSW Report").