"Take the changes by the hand,
before they take you by the throat."
Winston Churchil
before they take you by the throat."
Winston Churchil
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At the doorstep of the third millennium, we are witnessing fast paced changes in our world. In the latter part of the 1980s, with the total collapse of the communist block, the Cold War ended, bi-polarity ceased and the realignment of power centers occurred on the basis of economic and political lines of power. The new strategic environment in terms of the European role in the political world, as well as the European order, resulted in fundamental changes.
In the midst of this extraordinarily dynamic and complex procedure, the primary responsibility of security policies is to simplify, systematize and define the most important factors necessary to minimally but sufficiently understand the current processes of European security.
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This study intends to provide answers to three basic questions:
1. What are the central pillars of today’s European security structure?
2. What is the number of minimal but absolutely necessary central relationships?
3. What are their contents?
1. What are the central pillars of today’s European security structure?
2. What is the number of minimal but absolutely necessary central relationships?
3. What are their contents?
The thesis of the study is the following premise: in order to understand European security, at least five central considerations, circumstances, processes and their correlation must be observed. This study claims European security today rests on the following five pillars:
- Historical characteristics, traditional heritage and actual characteristics of interest assertion by European powers
- Continuity, changes and new trends of global and European security challenges
- European security policy and defense capability evolution
- Transatlantic relationship dialectics
- European integration rules
