"Strengthening EU-WEU relations: Needs, options, and prospects"

Kepinski, Pawel. (1997) "Strengthening EU-WEU relations: Needs, options, and prospects". In: UNSPECIFIED, Seattle, WA. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

From the end of the Second World War to the fall of 1989, the geopolitical map of Europe was well-ordered and clear. However the events of 1989 and beyond significantly changed the politics in Europe. The climate of an East-West ideological confrontation, military competition, and economic containment has now given way to the notions of democracy, market economy, multi-dimensional integration, cooperative security system, and multi-layered region and sub-regional cooperation. With the end to the communist threat, the previous definitions of security no longer fit and new ones must be worked out. In a short time, the European security agenda expanded conceptually to deal with the new circumstances. It reaches beyond the traditional military/strategic security concerns, to include the discussion of such new (and not so new) concerns as the resurgence of nationalism, the explosion of ethnic warfare, an increased flow of refugees, cross-border migration, a rise in organized international crime, increased drug trafficking, social unrest, economic disparity, and environmental degradation. Today, scholars and policymakers must come to a fundamentally new understanding of the security scene on the European continent. This effort is capture in the phrase: building a new European security architecture. Indeed, there is an ongoing effort to define and establish some new security arrangements and institutions which would be both suitable and effective in addressing the current and the future European security concerns. This paper seeks to contribute to this ongoing effort by briefly examining the emerging European security scene, broadly outlining the main visions of the new security architecture, and most importantly, by examining the Western European Union and evaluating the Maastricht Treaty idea of strengthening the relations between the European Union and the Western European Union (WEU).

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