Contributions of NATO, EU and OSCE to European Security: Threats and Risks. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol.5 No. 7, April 2005

Rivera, Roberto Dominguez. (2005) Contributions of NATO, EU and OSCE to European Security: Threats and Risks. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol.5 No. 7, April 2005. [Working Paper]

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Abstract

[Introduction]. As the logic of democracy and free markets spreads throughout Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s, the concept of security consequently evolved to encompass new challenges derived from the end of the Cold War. Ever since, the debate about security has focused on the subject and the referential object. The former entails an inquiry into whether individuals, groups, states, regions or the global community are the most relevant actors to be protected. The latter reflects on what issues should be considered as part of security, namely, environmental, military or economic, among others. This pluralistic trend set out the premises for the reformation of international security studies (2) and, to some extent, for the “over-securitization” and “terroristization” of the international agenda as a result of 9/11. The debate on security has opened up various avenues of analysis. In order to delimit them, two criteria are taken into consideration. First, agents seek “freedom from threats to core values,” (3) which is one of the most basic definitions of security; as a result, each agent faces a different type of insecurity. For instance, security at the domestic level “is provided through a mixture of legal mechanisms and insurance policies. No such mechanisms exists when it comes to external threats to the state.” (4) Thus, the present paper focuses on the contributions of European (transatlantic) institutions (European Union, NATO and OSCE) to regional security. Second, it argues that the themes included in the security agenda are determined not only by official discourses, but also by the institutional strategies and policies aimed at deterring countering threats.

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