Over the past few decades, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has emerged as a crucial geopolitical area holding a significant potential for advancing international management scholarship. Its potential as a testing lab for old theories and springboard for new theories was emphasized by many scholars since the early 90s (Puffer, 1994; Elenkov, 1998; Puffer, McCarthy, Zhuplev, 1998; ) and underlined especially in the notable paper by Meyer & Peng (2005: 600-601): “CEE provides and interesting laboratory for developing and testing theories, because the transition processes provide a series of unique societal quasi-experiments. Even among emerging economies, CEE is special owning to the radical switch from central planning to market competition and high degree of industrialization”. However recent reflections question whether CEE has lived up to its promise as a hub for innovative research in international management.We propose in our panel to do discuss this issue, evaluate the stock of IB results and focus on three topics that CEE region might become particularly suitable location to study: the importance of political ties and capabilities, nationalism and populism, and pivoting international strategies and risk management during the time of sanctions, conflicts and wars.