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2018 | Buch

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The Euro-Atlantic Security System in the 21st Century

From Cooperation to Crisis

verfasst von: Prof. Ryszard Zięba

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : Global Power Shift

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book examines the evolution of the Euro-Atlantic security system, from cooperation to rivalry and crisis, since the beginning of the 21st century. By highlighting the causes, manifestations and international consequences of this evolution, the author describes a stage of crisis in the security system, characterized by increasing rivalry for spheres of influence, militarization of policies and the suspension of cooperation due to the growing divergence between the interests of the West – now including the Central European states – and Russia, leading to a subsequent reconfiguration of the world order.
Adopting a neo-realistic approach, the author demonstrates that members of the Euro-Atlantic security system, irrespective of the values they claim to hold, are guided in their actions on the international stage by clearly defined interests. The first part of the book analyses the nature of the Euro-Atlantic security system, while the second part illustrates the limited success of Euro-Atlantic collaboration, for example in combating terrorism. Lastly, the third part discusses the consequences of the crisis, such as the conflict in Ukraine, and prospects for the future evolution of the Euro-Atlantic security system.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

The introduction makes the case for addressing the issue of the Euro-Atlantic security system in the 21st century and explains the importance of the system and of its evolution form cooperation to rivalry and crisis. The author adopts the neorealist perspective as a method of analysis, and refers to the premises championed by Kenneth Waltz, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. The book has three parts. The first presents the background for the analysis, i.e., the origins of the Euro-Atlantic security system (Chap. 1), the changing challenges and threats faced by that system (Chap. 2), and the security concepts of the system’s participants (Chap. 3); the second contains an analysis of the functioning of the system—from cooperation to crisis (Chaps. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7); while the third presents the consequences of the erosion of cooperation within the system leading to the Ukraine crisis, and shows the prospects for the system’s evolution.

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Background

Frontmatter

Chapter 2. The Euro-Atlantic Security System in the 1990s

Abstract

This chapter gives a description and the background for the Euro-Atlantic security system as it emerged after the Cold War and its functioning for about a decade. It shows the genesis of the system; and how it came to include the new Central European democracies, which were admitted to NATO and the European Union; and the cooperation of all the system’s members based on the concept of cooperative security. The evolution of the Euro-Atlantic security system in the nineties produced an asymmetry of security—greater in its western part and weaker in its eastern one. Russia was the weaker partner and agreed to cooperate with the West, but raised reservations about the expansion of its multilateral structures, especially NATO, in which it saw a potentially threatening political and military bloc with a Cold War pedigree.

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Chapter 3. Changing Challenges and Threats for Euro-Atlantic Security in the 21st Century

Abstract

The third chapter contains a presentation of the evolving challenges and threats to the Euro-Atlantic zone. The author shows the reconfiguration of the global international order, which resulted in the West’s position weakening while that of the new emerging powers rose. The latter included Russia which, strengthened under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, shifted to a policy of balancing the influence of the West and began to claim the right to co-decide in regional and global security. The author then points to the growing significance of terrorism as a major international threat in the 21st century, to the ongoing military threats connected with the nuclear stockpiles in the possession of great powers, and to the danger of proliferation of WMD. He also presents military threats created by the conventional arms race in Europe; cyber, economic, and environmental threats; and the serious challenges represented by uncontrolled migration to Europe.

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Chapter 4. The Security Concepts of Participants in the Euro-Atlantic Security System

Abstract

The fourth chapter focuses on how program documents concerning the security concepts (strategies and doctrines) of the principal participants of the Euro-Atlantic system identify threats and challenges to security, and how they present the aims, means and methods of security policy. The author analyses the security concepts of the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland as a middle power, NATO, the EU, Russia, and the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization. He notes that terrorism is identified as the main threat by almost all those entities and shows the evolution of their perception of other challenges and threats. In the final section, the author points to similarities and differences between security concepts in light of the theory of international relations. He concludes that the rise of divergent interests among the participants of the Euro-Atlantic security system is accompanied by a return to the traditional, militarized understanding of security, in keeping with the premises of the realist paradigm.

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The Functioning of the System: From Cooperation to Crisis

Frontmatter

Chapter 5. The Failure to Eliminate Terrorism

Abstract

The fifth chapter analyzes the fight against terrorism. As the principal participants of the Euro-Atlantic security system view terrorism as the main threat, they took action unilaterally and undertook multilateral cooperation to combat this trans-border danger. The author shows the War on Terror, proclaimed in 2001 by the USA, as mostly unsuccessful. He views the EU’s actions in this respect similarly. NATO-Russian collaboration in fighting terrorism was relatively successfully but did not produce large scale effects. In contrast, the fast-growing and intensive cooperation in fighting terrorism between Russia and CIS countries brought noticeable results. Generally, the author concludes that participants in the Euro-Atlantic security system are not coping with this dangerous phenomenon.

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Chapter 6. The West’s Dominance and Expansion and Russia’s Response

Abstract

The author claims that the greatest problems in the Euro-Atlantic security system arose with the West’s continued policy of dominance and expansion eastwards. The first tensions and diverting interests in relations with Russia were due to the West’s promotion of democracy in the Western Balkans and in the post-Soviet space, including the so-called ‘color revolutions’. Russia viewed this policy as a cover for the strategic interests of the USA, NATO and the EU and as interference in East-European countries’ internal affairs. Russia had been opposed to NATO expansion to the east since the previous decade, but had no means to prevent it during the first two post-Cold War rounds of NATO enlargement in 1999 and 2004. When, in 2008, NATO announced plans to include Ukraine and Georgia in the alliance, however, Russia was strong enough to oppose it and demonstrated its military power during the Georgian-Russian War of 2008, and then by intervening in Ukraine in 2014. As NATO reacted to this by reinforcing its eastern flank, Europe became the scene of a dangerous confrontation reminiscent of Cold War days.

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Chapter 7. The European Union in Crisis

Abstract

The seventh chapter is concerned with analyzing the crisis of the EU and its negative impact on the functioning of the Euro-Atlantic security system. The symptoms of the crisis came to the fore during work on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in 2002–2004, which ended in failure. With the Lisbon Treaty, which strengthened the inter-governmental character of the EU, the CSDP fall into stagnation. The EU also couldn’t function as an effective security policy actor on account of the financial and economic crisis 2008–2011. The EU then had to deal with the migration crisis that began in 2014. For many years, nationalistic and centrifugal tendencies threatening the EU’s survival as an integration project also had been on the rise. In 2016, the British decided to take their country out of the EU. The EU’s power to act weakened and the EU did not play a positive role in the Ukraine crisis. Nevertheless, the EU made successive attempts to revitalize the CSDP, drew up a new global foreign and security policy strategy in 2016, discussed how to build an European army, and established Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO).

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Chapter 8. The Marginalization of the OSCE

Abstract

The eighth chapter briefly describes the decline of the OSCE—the largest security organization in the Euro-Atlantic area, encompassing 57 states, and disposing of unique, so-called soft security ensuring instruments. This process was due to the dominant position in the entire system of NATO, an institution with hard security guarantees. Attempts to revive the OSCE were undertaken in 2010 at the Astana Summit, and then during the Ukraine crisis, in which the OSCE, as the sole multilateral institution, played a modest role in the monitoring of the cease-fire agreements concluded in Minsk in 2014 and 2015. The OSCE still has a chance of playing a greater role in the shaping of the Euro-Atlantic security system, but this would require an agreement between its principal participants, especially the western countries and Russia.

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Consequences and Prospects

Frontmatter

Chapter 9. The Ukraine Crisis and Its Implications for the Euro-Atlantic Security System

Abstract

In the ninth chapter, the author demonstrates how the Euro-Atlantic security system’s shift from cooperation to rivalry for spheres of influence reached its apogee in the Ukraine crisis. In the spring of 2014, following the arrival in power in Kyiv of nationalist and pro-Western politicians the crisis turned into an international crisis and to Russian intervention. Like the leading neorealists, the author holds the view that Ukraine was the scene of a clash between the West and Russia. The West attempted to draw Ukraine into its sphere of interests, and Russia countered this by annexing Crimea and by supporting militarily the secession of Ukraine’s eastern provinces (the Donbas). This crisis had a very negative impact on the Euro-Atlantic security system. It led to geopolitical rivalry, to military confrontation and to the weakening of Ukraine. The author also analyzes the chances for overcoming the crisis, by pointing to the need for a compromise with the participation of the three interested parties—Ukraine, the West and Russia.

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Chapter 10. Conclusions: Consequences of the Crisis of the Euro-Atlantic Security System and Prospects for Its Evolution

Abstract

The tenth and final chapter presents the author’s conclusions from the analyses of the functioning of the Euro-Atlantic security system in the 21st century. The author confirms his hypothesis, according to which this system found itself in a state of crisis consisting of a return to rivalry for spheres of influence and the suspension of cooperation. By observing the redistribution of capabilities in the global international order, the author notes the gradual weakening of the West and the simultaneous increase of Russia’s international position and the worsening sense of security in Central European countries, which feel threatened by Russia. Drawing inspiration from the theses of the neorealists and from Charles Kupchan, the author predicts a further weakening of the importance of the Euro-Atlantic security system in the global international order and the growing anarchy of world security. In conclusion, he points to the need to introduce new institutional arrangements to halt these negative trends.

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Titel: The Euro-Atlantic Security System in the 21st Century
verfasst von: Prof. Ryszard Zięba
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-79105-0
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-79104-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-79105-0