New Threats in Central Asia and the Caucasus and European Security
New Threats in Central Asia and the Caucasus and European Security

Author(s): Ondřej Ditrych
Subject(s): Security and defense, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: AMO – Asociace pro mezinárodní otázky
Keywords: European Security Strategy;
Summary/Abstract: “Europe has never been so prosperous, so secure nor so free,” reads European Security Strategy (ESS), a principal embodiment of European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Drafted by Javier Solana in the wake of United States’ invasion of Iraq and passed by Brussels’ European Council session in December 2003, the document downplays the risk of conventional warfare in Europe in near future, it however provides a sophisticated, if perhaps somewhat concise, analysis of new security threats to international community in general and European Union and its member states in particular. Listing terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), regional conflicts, state failure and organized crime as the principal threats and pointing to their mutual interconnectedness, it asserts that “in an era of globalization, distant threats may be as much a concern as those that are near at hand“ and that “with the new threats, the first line of defence will often be abroad.” Adhering to the key principles contained in ESS, this policy paper argues that both in EU’s policy planning and implementation in the field of security – in the broad definition of the term – there has been a serious neglect of one region where many of these threats have since 1990s been growing to reach levels at which they pose a considerable threat to not only European, but also to global security.

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