In many ways, Brussels and Beijing face similar challenges coming from Washington
Lately the not-so-fresh idea of a “European strategic autonomy” has got back in circulation in many EU capitals. This should come as no surprise, given the condescending and even arrogant attitude displayed by the Donald Trump administration toward US' European allies. Politicians and state officials across the European continent can no longer take the transatlantic commonality of values or even the enduring US leadership...
Paradoxically, despite Britain’s exit from the European Union, she now finds herself playing a leading role in European security
Britain’s traditionally hostile attitude towards Russia—starting at least as early as 1791, when Prime Minister Pitt the Younger lambasted Russia for wishing to carve up the Ottoman Empire, continuing with the Crimean War and then ...
... interpreted extremely broadly, which will allow them to be manipulated. Decisions are made not by machines, but by people. Their perception of the recent past matters. It is also compounded by deeper trust issues related to the post-Cold War structure of European security. The Russian leadership has repeatedly made it clear that it perceives Western policy over the past three decades as an attempt to exploit the results of the Cold War, contrary to the principle of equal and indivisible security.
The ...
... parties agreed, including respect for sovereign rights, self-determination, noninterference in internal affairs, restraining from threats or use of force, and peaceful settlement of disputes. The goal is to establish a firm basis for the organization of European security going forward that takes into account historical developments and technological advances since 1975 that affect the way states relate to one another and act on the global stage.
Reaching a comprehensive settlement will take considerable ...
... as well as militarily, and an attempt at its implementation could have had dire consequences for the country, which was then undergoing a deep internal political and social crisis.
Russia’s consolidated position was to launch negotiations on a new European security architecture that were to run in parallel to the ongoing process of NATO enlargement, which Russia could not stop at that time. This architecture could replace the military-political confrontation in the Euro-Atlantic that took shape ...
The main task for Russia is to avoid excessive overexertion and, at the same time, not get bogged down in a costly confrontation, maintaining and using levers of pressure on the West where its own interests require it
The United States handed over to Russia a written response to the proposals for security guarantees. Washington refused to accept Moscow’s demands for legally binding guarantees of NATO’s non-expansion, but indicated its readiness to discuss certain issues, such as arms control and...
... talks on German reunification, the United States has sat down at the negotiating table with Russia to discuss the problems of European security. Plus, for the first time since its recent withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF),... ... Eastern European member states is as impossible as it is largely unnecessary in terms of Russia’s security. The several thousand U.S. soldiers located on the territory in question don’t exactly pose a serious threat to Russia. NATO battalions in the ...
... amid the limitations of the current geopolitical situation.
To find a way out of the impasse of uncompromising stances being taken by both sides, it would first seem reasonable to disentangle the U.S.-Russian strategic weapons agenda from issues of European security. Negotiations between Moscow and Washington on nuclear issues follow their own logic and dynamics. They are too important to both sides and the international community to link them to any other problems, including security in Europe....
... in the Helsinki Final Act (1975), in the Paris Charter (1990), in the NATO-Russia Founding Act (1997) and in the Charter of European Security (1999). Therefore, it should be the obligation of both sides to work out the parameters of indivisible security ... ... approaching its own borders in proximity, for example, of 400-500 km?
Meanwhile, on the other side there are more than 100 thousand Ukrainian troops concentrated on the contact line with Donbas, and much closer to it than the distance between the Russian ...
... this new reality.
Does it open up new avenues for co-operation or will the deadlock of recent years deepen into further confrontation?
The Clingendael Institute is pleased to organise a webinar to discuss these and other developments in the field of European security, bringing together an American, Russian and European perspective.
Speakers
Clingendael moderator Bob Deen (Senior Research Fellow and Co-ordinator of the Clingendael Russia and Eastern Europe Centre) will moderate a conversation with ...
