Europe Needs a New Security Architecture

Author(s): Fyodor Lukyanov
Editor(s): Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 55
Pages: 2-5
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2009

It is time to renew Europe's security architecture. Current security policy institutions all stem from the 1970s and were created to face a different reality. After the end of the Cold War, instead of creating new institutional structures which would be able to cope with the new world order, the West extended the influence of the existing ones. Moscow's proposal for a Helsinki-2 comes at the right moment and is worth discussing. Europe once again needs to reach a fundamental agreement on a conceptual framework similar to the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, which comprised several baskets. If Russia and the EU intend to play an important role in the 21st century, they will have no choice but to cooperate with each other closely. Creating a model of interaction requires developing new intellectual approaches and overcoming old stereotypes and threat perceptions inherited from past centuries.

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