Central European Security Concerns

This book, first published in 1993, examines the security concerns of the Central European countries in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought considerable uncertainty and instability to its satellite states, now free from Moscow’s influence. This collection of essays by leading Central European experts analyses the problems and difficulties faced by these countries, as well as the opportunities offered in forging new security doctrines and alliances.

The authors of this collection combine different national and institutional perspectives. They cover a broad range of subjects: new threats to Europe's security, the advantages and disadvantages of the present security architecture in Europe, the problem of nuclear weapons and their control, the options for enlargement and partnership for peace, the shifts in Europeans' public opinion about security matters, and the prospects for a European defence industry. This collection provides an incomparable synthesis of some of the most crucial problems for the emergence of Europe as an independent actor in international politics.

Redefining European Security is a collection of essays concerned with changing perspectives on peace and political stability in Europe since the end of the Cold War, in both the hard security terms of military capacity and readiness and in the realm of soft security concerns of economic stability and democratic reform. European governments, the European Union, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are dealing with the fundamental problem of determining the very parameters of Europe, politically, economically, and institutionally. This book defines security as the efforts undertaken by national governments and multilateral institutions, beginning with the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany, to continue to protect European populations from acts of war and politically-motivated violence in light of the dissolution of the imminent political threat posed to Western Europe by the Soviet Union, 1945-1991 Together these essays assess the progress made in Europe toward preventing conflict, as well as in ending conflict when it occurs, after the abrupt passing of a situation in which the source and nature of a conflict were highly predictable and the emergence of new circumstances in which potential security threats are multiple, variable, and difficult to measure. Contemporary Europe is a mixture of old and new, of arrested and accelerated history. Europe's governments and institutions have been only partly successful in meeting new security challenges, to a high degree because of failing unity and political will. Yesterday, Europe only just avoided perishing from imperial follies and frenzied ideologies, wrote the late Raymond Aron in 1976, she could perish tomorrow through historical abdication.

NATO.s enlargement represents a watershed event in European security. It closes the so-called .post-Cold War. epoch that began with the fall of the Soviet empire and opens the way to a new stage in European and American history. The tendencies that are now pushing Europe towards greater integration have received a new injection of energy. NATO has not only proven itself the only truly effective security provider among European institutions, it has also shown itself to be the moving force behind Europe.s other security agencies, particularly the European Union (EU). After NATO decided to take in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland at its Madrid Conference in July 1997, the European Union, meeting at Amsterdam, decided to begin accession talks with those three states, Estonia, Cyprus, and Slovenia. Thus concurrent and coinciding waves of integration throughout the continent are going to transform Europe.s security map and agenda beyond recognition. But this does not mean either that past history is now utterly irrelevant or that Europe has attained a kind of security Nirvana. The Bosnian crisis, and to a lesser degree the Albanian crisis of 1997, as well as the recent problems in Kosovo show that many challenges confront Europe, and that Europe is reluctant to confront them.1 Insofar as out-of-area issues in the Middle East are concerned, the Iraqi crises of 1997-98 demonstrated that Europe remains divided, unable to forge a common security policy for those issues in that region or to assume a leadership position in the resolution of international crises.

The thawing of the Cold War has brought new concerns over the nature of European security to the fore and uncovered major differences in the approaches of individual states to changed circumstances. This book clarifies the options for a new European security order and contribute to the growing debate. It adopts a medium-term analytical approach and uses a three-tier format, covering the nature and structure of security and the security implications of Europe's resurgent nationalism; security strategy, with particular reference to the NATO perspective and to the European Community; and the distinctive security concerns of individual states. It looks at both Eastern and Western Europe and at the Soviet Union and it analyses the role of the United States in European security.The thawing of the Cold War has brought new concerns over the nature of European security to the fore and uncovered major differences in the approaches of individual states to changed circumstances.

Provides a survey of the principal items on the agenda following the end of the Cold War, focusing upon the institutions and regions where the reconsideration of security issues has been particularly profound. The book is organised into three main sections: the first examines the changed roles of the main security institutions which have survived the Cold War; NATO, the European Union/Western European Union and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The second analyses the Central European countries, Russia and States of the former Soviet Union in terms of their ideologies, political structures and relationships of the Cold War period. Lastly the text examines the northern and southern regions of Europe where quite different perspectives and agendas are concerned.

This book examines the European Union’s contribution to providing security in Europe amidst an increasingly complex and challenging environment. In this new and comprehensive guide to the EU's role in security since the end of the Cold War, the authors offer an explanation of EU internal and external security regimes, and argue that the Union has become an important exporter of security within its region. However, the Union’s rhetorical ambitions and commitments continue to outstrip its capabilities and it lacks both a common conceptualisation of security and a meaningful, shared strategic culture. Drawing extensively on primary sources the book examines the Union’s relations with the US and Russia in a time of shifting geostrategic calculations and priorities. With the EU capacity for enlargement slowing, this text presents a detailed assessment of EU security policies towards Central Europe, the Mediterranean, the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and South Caucasus. European Union Security will be of interest to students and scholars of the EU, security studies, and international relations.