12

At the beginning of the year, we look back at some of the core subjects covered by our think tank and researchers in 2018. The program includes publications on Swiss security policy, European security, armament policies and arms control, cybersecurity, mediation, critical infrastructure protection and more.

An important point of contention between Russia and the West is the alleged Western “promise” in 1990 not to expand NATO further east. Today, this controversy can largely be answered on the basis of recently declassified archival documents. Western guarantees in February 1990 referred only to the GDR; but the West deceived Gorbachev at the same time with vague promises of an inclusive European security order.

This article by Oliver Thränert aims at explaining why nuclear arms control has been stopped after the end of the Cold War and argues in favor of the revival of nuclear arms control as a strategic concept. Europe is especially called upon in taking the initiative towards a new arms control discourse.  

In January 2019, Switzerland will take over the rotating chairmanship of the Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC). The FSC is a little-known, integral decision-making body of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Every week in Vienna, the FSC discusses and negotiates measures to strengthen security in Europe.

In Africa, the UN not only increasingly collaborates with the African Union and other African regional organizations in peacekeeping operations, but often also the European Union. These inter-organizational peacekeeping arrangements enable the UN to share the burden for peacekeeping in Africa. However, Somalia and Mali illustrate that they face political and operational challenges.