Rodricks: Cardin pushing to reverse Trump-era brain drain at State Department

Quick, and without doing Google: What’s the capital city of Belarus? (Hint: It rhymes with Pinsk.) Second question: Is Poland a landlocked country? Third question: What is an oblast? Bonus question: Which of these countries are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization? (a.) Norway (b.) Georgia (c.) Ukraine. (d.) Latvia. Answers: Minsk is the capital of Belarus; no, Poland’s northern coast is on the Baltic Sea; an oblast is a political district, similar to a province, a term still used in Russia and other East European countries; and neither Ukraine nor Georgia are members of NATO, though a commission chaired by Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin recently urged the Biden administration to declare both countries “major non-NATO allies,” signifying an upgrade of the U.S. defense relationship with them.