Defence and Security: Pitfalls and Challenges for the EU and the Caucasus (original) (raw)
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EU Security Policy in the South Caucasus: The Need to Move from Hydra to Hercules
It is high time that the EU security policy in the South Caucasus reinvented itself. To secure its interests, the many-headed Hydra that has been steadily growing in size but not consequence needs to turn into Hercules bringing peace to the region through his works. Following an analysis of the current complex security environment and an overview of the tangled web of EU security policies in the region, several recommendations are put forward to that end. The EU should reinforce its policies of mediating between local actors by assuming a more active role in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, a key regional security problem, including through expressed readiness to deploy a CSDP mission there. Russia should be engaged on friendly but firm terms. De-isolation of Armenia should be promoted, and relations with Azerbaijan placed in a broader context than is currently the case with the shortsighted focus on the external dimension of energy security policy. In terms of structuring the neighbourhood, the most effective measure is argued to be a more direct engagement by the EU of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The europeanization of these regions is a key precondition for the peaceful settlements on EU’s terms. Finally, a strategic framework for EU’s policy towards the region should be established. Its overarching aim should be functional regional cooperation producing progressive removal of obstacles to traffic flows and increasing dynamic density of interactions by emergence of regional regimes serving as sites of social learning, ultimately leading to an emergence of a South Caucasus security community. They could include development and management of transport networks regimes, trans-border regional development regimes, or free movement of goods and people regimes constituting de-territorialized shared jurisdictions.
The European security system: Prospects and hopes
Frederic Labarre, George Niculescu (Eds.) 18th Workshop of the Study Group “South Caucasus: Leveraging Political Change in a Context of Strategic Volatility,” National Defence Academy at the Austrian Ministry of Defence in cooperation with PfP Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, Vienna, April 2019, pp. 215-238.
European Security and Defence: Lessons from the Last decade
The last decade has provided policy-makers, analysts and experts of international and European security and defence with some difficult lessons. The attack on the US in 2001 served as a reminder that even the most powerful state in the international system is not impervious to emerging threats. In its reaction, the US led two military interventions, which still provoke significant debate in Europe and beyond. The enemy has been an amorphous one – global terrorism. However towards the end of the decade the Russian-Georgian war reminded Europeans of the existence of more traditional territorial conflicts and the prominence of Russia in European Security. In this new decade European security and defence is yet again at a crossroads. On the one hand, Bin Laden’s death and the Arab Spring seem to suggest a move towards a world that is becoming a safer and more stable place. On the other hand, the crises in Libya and Syria seem to indicate that the question of military intervention will remain a pressing one. Libya in particular demonstrated that Europe has not developed a common approach to its role as a collective military actor. To complicate things further, European security and defence has faced the pressing needs of unprecedented austerity, as the deep economic crisis has hit many European Union (EU) states hard. The 21st century seems to be witnessing a transformation of the international system. New centres f power are emerging, pushing the system away from a predominantly unipolar period towards a new multipolar phase. This new international order seems to promise increased levels of uncertainty in all spheres, and especially security and defence. Understanding the emerging poles will be a crucial process for Europeans and their allies in order to attain security in this new order. The fifth workshop of the European Security and Defence Forum addressed these crucial issues for Europe and brought together a distinguished array of participants from policy, industry and academia to evaluate the last decade, with a view to better inform and guide future policy. A considerable part of the discussion focused on the lessons that it was felt had not been learnt, some of the recurring themes in European foreign policy including terrorism, power shifts, strategy and Afghanistan. The discussants analysed these in order to put forward proposals geared at maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of interventions, improving counterterrorism strategies, as well as evaluating new strategies for the UK, Europe and its security institutions.
Does the EU Need a Strategy for the South Caucasus? [pp: 25-34]
PfP Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 2024
This Study Group Information booklet represents the proceedings of the 27th workshop of the Regional Stability in the South Caucasus Study Group (RSSC SG) entitled “Does the EU need a Strategy for the South Caucasus?” held in Chisinau, Moldova, from 11 to 14 April 2024. The papers collected herein deal with the evolving geopolitical structures that may affect the orientation of South Caucasus states individually or as a group. The papers also deal with the European Union’s general policy orientation regarding the South Caucasus and, in some cases, on policy decisions that have had a lasting impact on regional security. In some cases, the papers explore the history of relations between Europe and the South Caucasus and the growing role of Türkiye and Iran in the strategic equation. It concludes with actionable recommendations extracted from the interactive discussions moderated by the co-chairs.
Europe and Security in the Caucasus
Transition Studies Review, 2005
The Caucasus has become, as a long-lasting seismic wave, a framework of enormous and underestimated relevance and uncertainty. But even so, we have not to become prisoner of a short-term “cage”. There is neither strategy nor policy, diplomacy, or war that can exist without four fundamental intellectual preconditions: historical knowledge, security knowledge, ethnic-cultural-religious knowledge, and knowledge of the geopolitical, economic, and international order. These have been recalled by some crucial comments taken from a revisited version of Homer’s Iliad, recently published by the Italian writer Alessandro Baricco, to better focus the concepts. “Men have always flung themselves headlong into battle, like moths attracted towards a fatal flame. There is no fear or self-disgust which has managed to keep them away from that flame” – he wrote – “because it is within that flame that they have always found the only way of emerging from the shadows of life. For this reason, I believe that no one will stop searching for an alternative beauty to that represented by the war path or stop looking for a reason to about face. Sooner or later we will succeed in calling Achilles away from this fateful war. Neither fear nor horror will bring him home. It will be some other completely different beauty, more dazzling than his own and infinitely more humble”. We are, in fact, aware of examples of very poor governance skills at a global level as regards the management of medium-and long-term international order options. And the Caucasus is really a case study. For these many reasons Europe cannot avoid an effective “neighbourhood policy” with the Caucasian countries. In 2003, the European Union appointed a Special Representative for the region. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia all have Partnership and Cooperation Agreements in force with the EU. Actions plans will be soon implemented and Europe represents by and large the preferred and more reliable interlocutor for the Caucasian region.
Nowadays European Union is facing challenges of immigration, the threat of radicalization, downturns in the fiscal and monetary policies, as well as the discussions on how to build bridges with the UK after Brexit. Such concerns are crucial for understanding the EU's political and economic landscape, shaping global security issues as well. The article attempts to analyze the circumstances favoring the implementation of the EU's Global Strategy that served to be strategic reality-checks upon how to bring stability and security to Europe. It shapes the period from the origins of the European security strategies till the new era of the EU presented by EU Global Strategy in 2016. The article questions weather the political will is deeply essential for the EU to remain solid tackling economic and political challenges. Therefore, the article is divided in two parts, namely: 1) the evolution of the EU security strategies; 2) the hybrid challenges for Europe shaped by EU Global Strategy. It is concluded that the EU should perceive the concept of the adaptability as pivotal in order to find credible and fit-for-purpose solutions and create the full-fledged EU Global Strategy. The latter still needs to be adapted to the civilian and integrated capabilities in order to become a real global strategy.