Segurança e Defesa

Southern Europe in a changing global dimension, por Roberto Aliboni

Western countries are pursuing two most urgent objectives in reaction to the sweeping changes in Eastern Europe and the URSS. First, Eastern Europe and the URSS must be helped to accomplish their transition to political pluralism and a market economy. Second, the nationalist evolution of the Greater Germany and other West and East European countries following the political and security changes occurring must be prevented. In order to attain these two objectives, three policies are being contemplated by the Atlantic allies and the other West European countries as possible pathways or solutions: the deepening and reinforcement of the EC; the maintenance of a strong American presence in Europe via NATO; and the establishment of a collective security framework composed of the two blocs and the neutral and non-aligned European countries, which has been identified as a “new CSCE”. The “new CSCE” vision expresses the widespread feeling that with the collapse of the Soviet threat the military dimension of the Western network is no longer necessary. Consequently, both NATO and the EC institutions would become obsolete from the security point of view. It is precisely this vision that is being contested in the present study, as it is thought that the “new CSCE” has no political perquisites for being effective in providing the expected security. This is of special importance to the South European countries as the stability in the Western institutional network is of interest for this bloc to deal with the threats originated in the future.