Security challenges in Europe after NATO enlargement 16 pages, pdf  Download Back

Security challenges in Europe after NATO enlargement

Publisher: Simon Serfaty

Volume: 16 pages, pdf

Description:

The post-Cold War years are over. A quick thought for the years lived since the reintegration of the two Germanys into one, and the disintegration of the Soviet Union into many, serves as a reminder that they have proven to be less demanding than in 1919-24, when the post-war system emerged only in the aftermath of the ill-fated French occupation of the Ruhr, or than in 1945-49, when the post-war structure began to settle with the signing of the Washington Treaty and, subsequently, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The future is about to begin. Moving the clock forward to April 1999, when revisions to the Washington Treaty will be formally signed, helps anticipate issues of European security beyond the first phase of NATO enlargement, which can also be declared as over.

But what future—one that will resurrect the worst features of the distant past or one that will strengthen the best legacies of a more recent past? The evidence gathered to date remains contradictory. As should have been expected, the post-Cold War era in Europe was fraught with many instabilities and much uncertainty. These were seen and endured most visibly and most painfully in the Balkans, including but not limited to Bosnia and what used to be known as Yugoslavia. They have to do, too, with future conditions in what used to be known as the Soviet Union, including Russia, the defeated state, but also many of the countries that fell under its domination before and after the Revolution of 1917. On the whole, though, these post-Cold War instabilities and uncertainties have little to do with the Cold War. Rather, they mainly grow out of earlier wars, including the two world wars that conditioned the distribution of power in Europe and beyond, during much of the 20th century.