Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many Westerners had little knowledge about the Space between Germany and Russia, an area labeled by most scholars as Central and Eastern Europe. Before visiting the region in 2015, this host was one of them. Without this episode's guest, there would be no Waitt, What? The Podcast nor would I have ever seriously considered my deep dives into the history and geopolitics of Central and Eastern Europe. He is Jason Hanson, a professor of European History at Furman University. He and I have both developed a keen interest particularly in Eastern Europe. This inaugural episode is to cover the Western Balkans, Jason's specialty region, in the context of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. Like everything in Central and Eastern Europe, the geopolitical situation in the Western Balkans is far from black-and-white.