Photo by nonanet on flickr

On Tuesday, 23 June, EWI brought together diplomats, academics, journalists and representatives of European Union institutions in Brussels for a presentation of its Expert Working Group report, Euro-Atlantic Security: One Vision, Three Paths. 

The seminar – moderated by EWI Vice President Greg Austin – allowed colleagues in Brussels to lend their insights to the ongoing process to refine and renew the Euro-Atlantic security architecture. 

EWI delivered the experts’ group’s report to OSCE foreign ministers in the run-up to their June 27 meeting in Corfu, Greece. The purpose of the report is to stimulate a much-needed ”grand debate” on Euro-Atlantic security and to complement and support official diplomatic channels as they strengthen the current security architecture. The Brussels seminar was one step towards that grand debate, providing a forum for a multitude of viewpoints to work towards concrete action and reform.

Co-authors of the group’s report presented their recommendations, shared their experiences crafting the report, and offered their own visions for sustainable collective security regimes in the region. Hall Gardner of the American University of Paris and Wolfgang Zellner of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg delivered opening remarks.

Gardner emphasized joint measures to “soften the edges” of current security arrangements. In his remarks, he:

• Discussed a “security/insecurity” dialectic, in which threat perceptions lead to counter-measures, which in turn lead to a wider set of threat perceptions. A new approach to collective security, he suggested,  is the only viable response;
• Proposed the establishment of OSCE regional command structures in Sevastopol and Kaliningrad - under the stewardship of a European strategic council - to coordinate security measures;
• Suggested that political and economic cooperation in the Caucasus and the Black Sea region might form the basis of a “confederated” structure to serve as a vehicle to resolve the controversy over the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Click here for a transcript of Hall Gardner's comments (240K PDF)

Zellner emphasized the urgency of fresh engagement in policy dialogue in light of declining security trends over the last decade. Among his main points:

• While it is exaggerated to expect agreement on a road map in Corfu, OSCE ministers might begin a process for future adoption of a road map in a so-called Corfu process.
• A “normative vacuum” has developed after a period of neglect, differences in interpretations, or open violation of existing security arrangements.  Addressing this dilemma is fundamental to secure lasting peace.
• Progress in European security policy is “unimaginable” without reinvigoration and ratification of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe

Ortwin Hennig, former Vice President of EWI, and Vadim Lukov, Russian Ambassador to Belgium, responded to Gardner and Zellner’s proposals, raising questions about legal, military and institutional security guarantees; the notion of equal and indivisible security; the utility of the Adapted CFE Treaty; NATO expansion; and joint confidence-building measures.

Following formal presentations and responses, participants voiced a number of concerns and questions, including:

• How does the vision put forward in the report align with current political realities, especially regarding the pivotal role of individual regional disputes, such as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in wider multilateral security arrangements?
• Is the report overly optimistic?  Or is it optimistic enough?
• Conceptual and political parameters of the basic principle of “equal and indivisible security” need to be carefully examined and explored.
• How do we “free ourselves to be able to address the real [security] issues”, such as Pakistan, North Korea, global warming, energy systems and shifting global power dynamics?
• Differences between the security interests of Western and Eastern Europe and between the EU and the U.S. present challenges for Russia’s integration into joint security structures.

These questions and questions arising from other, similar meetings will help set the agenda for future deliberations of the Experts' Working Group and contribute to more comprehensive recommendations to renew the Euro-Atlantic security architecture.

Euro-Atlantic Security: One Vision, Three Paths marks the beginning of EWI’s commitment to support the evolution of a new Euro-Atlantic security agenda. Several opportunities exist to develop this agenda, including Russian President Medvedev’s European Security Treaty proposal, this summer’s U.S.-Russia summits, NATO’s planned development of a new security concept and Kazakhstan’s upcoming OSCE chairmanship. EWI plans to seize these opportunities and help advance a reinforced security framework.

Open dialogue with thought leaders and policy practitioners will play a central role in driving meaningful progress.  To facilitate such a dialogue, EWI will convene a similar forum in Moscow to build consensus around emerging ideas and mobilize policymakers to implement these ideas.