Task Force on Cooperation in Greater Europe Position Paper IV
Task Force
on Cooperation in Greater Europe Position Paper
The context
Large swathes of the Middle East have collapsed into a state of violence, chaos and division, causing unimaginable amounts of human suffering. We now face a highly dynamic and very dangerous situation in the Middle East, with the prospect of further instability, but also some hope for improvement following a pause in the Syrian civil war.
During our recent meetings...
... of trust will be with us for a long, long time even under the best possible circumstances. And without trust it is practically impossible to consider a comprehensive and long term common strategy in such a sensitive and politically loaded sphere as international security.
Second
, there is no common vision about the future of the international system at large or about the future of Euro-Atlantic space in particular. The perceptions of how the new world order should look like are too different in ...
... matter is required.
According to a foreign participant, Russia's operation in Syria may add to its tarnished image in the EU since it generates one more driver for the refugee flow to Europe.
The participants agreed to continue their exchanges on the international security issues.
List of participants
Roundtable "Russian and Western Views on International Conflict Settlement and Security Challenges"
I felt a sense of deja vu reading Troitskiy’s polemical
response
. The very title of the article “Why Nuclear Weapons Are Strategically Useless?” gives rise to troubling associations. More than once in history has a particular kind of weapon been declared “strategically useless.” In the early twentieth century, French military commanders declared that airplanes had no place in the army and their scope of application was just in sports. In the 1930s, a notorious group...
... characteristics to nuclear weapons that they do not have – in the first place the ability to protect a state from any threats other than a direct and large-scale (and therefore unlikely) military aggression.
By contrast, the risks these weapons pose for international security are very real. Fenenko rightly notes that terrorist groups, fortunately, have not been able to gain access to nuclear materials over the past 20 years or so. However, most developed countries, including Russia, recognise the growing ...
Why the nuclear weapons is not the main security guarantee
Commemorating the 70-year tragic anniversary of the A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it seems appropriate to once again ponder over the role of nuclear weapons in the world, as well as over their impact on security of separate countries and the entire world. The countless human losses and unbearable sufferings inflicted by the August 1945 attack unveiled the dangers of possessing nuclear weapons, while future developments seemed convincing...
The relationship seems to have returned to Mubarak’s times
The U.S.-Egypt strategic dialogue was reset on August 2 in Cairo which signifies restoration of a full-scale partnership of the two countries at the level of the Hosni Mubarak rule.
The bilateral relationship was shattered in July 2013 when the Egypt's top brass ousted legitimately elected Islamist President Mohammad Morsi. Washington condemned the coup, although never using the word, as well as the subsequent repressions against the Muslim...
Several Possible Lines of Regional Cooperation
The official end of the West’s military campaign in Afghanistan has been followed by the start of another mission in the country, which held presidential elections in 2014 but where the situation seems to be deteriorating ever faster. Other actors are becoming more visible and seem strong enough to shatter not only Afghanistan but also Central Asia’s inherently fragile states. At the same time, these countries and regional organizations...
This summer the world celebrates the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act. The jubilee session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly was held in Finland's capital in early July, but the festivities turned pretty sour since Finland banned the entry of several members of the Russian delegation and Moscow refused to attend amidst the Russia-West relationship having become very problematic due the ongoing Ukraine crisis and sanctions.
Here RIAC Program Manager Natalia Evtikhevich, PhD...
... nuclear arsenal.
The United States is not building up its nuclear arsenal, but is rather cutting it by almost two thirds, i.e. from 1,385 to 400-500 bombs including those stationed at European bases. Improved safety control over these weapons is good for international security, whereas on the whole, the program offers a good example of thrift displayed toward previous major allocations for developing for producing weapons that with minor upgrades can remain effective for many decades. The B61 was commissioned ...
