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Think Tank Report Urges EU To Reconsider Chosen Security Strategies

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  • Think Tank Report Urges EU To Reconsider Chosen Security Strategies

    THINK TANK REPORT URGES EU TO RECONSIDER CHOSEN SECURITY STRATEGIES

    Deutsche Welle
    http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6115306,00.html
    Oct 15 2010
    Germany

    Pan-European security cooperation will top the agenda at the Deauville
    Summit between the leaders of Germany, France and Russia but while
    the topic is a pressing one, are they the right people to be talking
    about it?

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel will attend the annual Deauville
    Summit on Monday to hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy
    and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on how security cooperation
    between the three nations can be improved.

    The three leaders will also discuss their joint positions ahead of
    the Group of 20 (G20) summit in South Korea on November 11-12 and
    France's objectives for when it assumes the leadership of the G20 in
    November and the Group of Eight (G8) in January.

    The meeting in the French town comes at a time when relations between
    Russia and the EU seem to be improving with Moscow showing signs that
    closer ties with the EU, especially with those former Soviet states
    which are now members of the European bloc, have become a priority.

    Among the security issues up for discussion on the Deauville agenda
    will be the stability of restive regions on Europe's eastern flank
    and potential flashpoints such as the breakaway Moldovan region of
    Transdniestria, and the stand-off between Armenia and Azerbaijan
    over Nagorno-Karabakh.

    While these and other issues between the nations which make up Russia
    and the EU's collective neighborhood all have strategic and security
    concerns for those in attendance, a report released Friday by the
    European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) think tank claims that
    "the Merkel-Medvedev-Sarkozy summit has the right agenda but the
    wrong participants."

    Report suggests EU needs to look to Russia, Turkey

    Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
    Tensions are still high in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh In the
    report entitled "The illusion of order and the specter of a multipolar
    Europe," authors Mark Leonard, the ECFR's director, and Ivan Krastev
    claim that a European security trialogue between the EU, Russia and
    Turkey would be more effective in tackling conflicts and promoting
    stability in the problem regions of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

    "The idea is that an informal forum with the key players could
    breathe life back into the formal European security institutions,"
    Mark Leonard told Deutsche Welle. "One of the reasons that the current
    institutions are dead-locked is the fact that Russia is questioning
    their legitimacy."

    "Meanwhile Turkey is frustrated at the short-sighted way that some
    EU member states are holding up the accession process. It is so
    difficult to get things done through the formal institutions that
    Europe's powers are often acting outside them. This is not good for
    the EU as we want a continent run through multilateral institutions
    rather than spheres of influence or the balance of power. The report
    argues that we should therefore engage with the other players to
    revitalise these institutions."

    "The EU is missing an opportunity to think creatively about a new
    security architecture and come up with its own initiative on the
    future of the European order," Leonard added.

    Europe urged to take responsibility

    Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The
    Georgia War highlighted Europe's weaknesses With the United States,
    Europe's erstwhile protector, shifting its focus to its own concerns
    in Afghanistan, Iran and China, the ECFR report calls on the EU to
    take more responsibility for security in its own neighborhood. It
    states that the current security system has failed to prevent wars in
    Kosovo and Georgia, gas and oil disputes between Russia and Ukraine
    and defuse tensions between Moscow and former Soviet states and must
    adapt to a new reality.

    "All three players are very much affected by the states on the EU's
    eastern flank and have developed complex 'neighborhood policies'
    to manage relations with the western Balkans, Eastern Europe and
    Central Asia," said Mark Leonard. "This grey zone of instability is
    threatened with ethnic tensions, weak states and energy issues."

    The report suggests that a three-way dialogue leading to a potential
    security action plan with Russia and Turkey would provide the EU with
    a new structure in which it could participate in reducing tensions on
    its borders by demilitarising the continent's most volatile regions
    and solving frozen conflicts.

    It also claims that if the initial results were satisfactory, EU
    nations could then be more receptive to Russian President Medvedev's
    proposal for a European security treaty, a plan which has been met
    with suspicion and skepticism by a number of member states, as well
    as the US, which believe any such treaty could undermine NATO and
    provide Russia with a veto of the alliance's activities.

    The ECFR has rejected the claim that such a security apparatus
    involving Russia would threaten the NATO-Russia Council or other
    existing structures such as the Organisation for Security and
    Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), saying that any new forum would work
    alongside existing structures.

    Experts see much to gain from three-way security forum

    Asher Pirt, a researcher at the British East West Center, an NGO
    working with Russia and CIS states, believes that the EU, Russia
    and Turkey have much to gain from being involved in such a three-way
    security dialogue.

    Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
    Ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan has wider repercussions "Russia, Turkey
    and the European Union are very clear that stability in the former
    Soviet Union is very important to them," he told Deutsche Welle.

    "Potential conflicts can cause numerous problems to all the great
    powers and demands for military intervention are costly and politically
    dangerous. Humanitarian aid is expensive and the tragedy of conflict
    is something none of the great powers wish to observe. The issue of
    displaced persons also becomes an issue for the three powers.

    Finally, conflicts can spread and create instability within their
    borders, something all wish to avoid."

    Pirt believes that the combination of the three powers could have
    a positive effect on unstable regions, with each bringing its own
    expertise and knowledge to the table.

    "Turkey and Russia have linguistic connections with ethnic groups
    throughout the former Soviet Union," he said. "For example, the
    ongoing crisis in the Kyrgyz Republic needs and could benefit from
    Russian and Turkish diplomatic intervention."

    "The European Union is still needed to finance long-term projects that
    can promote understanding between parties to various conflicts. It
    is also clear that all the powers need to discuss financing long
    term development projects organized by NGOs to improve education,
    employment, socio-economic problems and democratic practices."

    No quick fix for the problems on EU's eastern doorstep

    Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
    Any alliance will face the same problems as if faced alone However,
    even if the three-way dialogue becomes a reality, the EU, Russia
    and Turkey will still face incredible difficulties in resolving the
    conflicts in restive regions throughout their common neighborhood.

    "Resolution of these conflicts will only come about when the parties
    involved really want this to happen, no matter how much pressure
    is imposed on them," said Pirt. "Sanctions do not work as only the
    population suffers and not the leadership."

    "Dealing with security issues like these takes decades rather than
    months," he concluded. "Unless the alliance manages to agree a united
    framework on how to deal with the security issues, any attempts at
    dealing with the issues will end in failure."

    Author: Nick Amies

    Editor: Rob Mudge




    From: A. Papazian
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