Building Security in Europe's New Borderlands

Scholars of international relations, about equally divided between eastern and western European, address the usual range of problems encountered when consolidating conquered territory, chief among them how to keep the native from fighting each other and pay attention to their betters. The eight reports represent the findings of the first phase of a research project begun in 1996 by the EastWest Institute, on the subregions of East-Central and South-Eastern Europe and the Trans-Caucasus.

While European integration advances, many of the countries along Europe's eastern and southern periphery have fallen prey to chronic conflict punctuated by a series of small wars. Exacerbating the situation has been the lack of effective organizational means for mediating local conflicts, facilitating regional development and structuring cooperation with larger regional and international institutions. What are the prospects for enhancing security in the most volatile subregions of post-communist Europe? This text examines the external and internal factors that impede or foster subregional cooperation in South-Eastern and East-Central Europe and the Caucasus. It includes chapters situating these borderlands in the context of a wider Europe with an evolving security architecture.

Reflections on Subregionalism and Wider European Security, Anders Bjurner. Part 1 East-Central Europe: The Western NIS - From Borderland to Subregion?, Charles King; Subregional Relations and Cooperative Initiatives in East-Central Europe, Oleksandr Pavliuk. Part 2 South-Eastern Europe: External Institutional Frameworks and Subregionalism in South-Eastern Europe, Sophia Clement; Legitimizing Subregionalism - Evolving Internal Regional Perceptions, Initiatives and Approaches to Subregional Relations in South-Eastern Europe, Plamen Pantev. Part 3 Trans-Caucasus: External Factors Affecting Subregional Cooperation in the Southern Tier, S. Neil MacFarlane; The Southern Caucasus - Cooperation or Conflict?, Arif Yunusov. Part 4 Interlocking Cooperation: Europe's Security Architecture and the New "Boundary Zones", Andrew Cottey.

Dwan, Renata