New strategic concept of NATO and Russian initiative for change in European security architecture

Abstract

New NATO strategic concept was adopted by the end of 2010. Before that, the Russian initiative for creating a new European security architecture was released. Whether the views of the East and the West in these activities concerning one of the most important issues of the present day - personal and collective security - are closer than before, and whether the world is more secure and regulated following these initiatives - time will tell. This paper does not aspire to provide final answers to these and other questions. This is only an attempt to perceive basic aspects of the existing differences between Russia and the West in comprehending the security issue, and to extend to the readers, against that background, a unique intellectual challenge and invitation to analyze on their own, through the prism of the metamorphosis of two traditionally confronted parties' relations, the contemporaneousness in the area of security. The main assumption of the problem analysis is based on the fact that the differences between NATO, USA and Europe, on one side, and Russia, on the other side, in their approaches to general problems, in particular in the area of security, are still substantial and represent a large, often unbridgeable obstacle for initiating a proper dialog. The more so because the latest initiatives, included in the new NATO strategic concept and in the Russian motion for redefining the European security architecture, unambiguously comprise an initiative and a wish for a dialog. Unfortunately, in the former practice, such efforts for the most part have not produced expected results! The Russian idea was initiated on the basis of the new Concept of the Russian Foreign Policy and coincides in time also with the process of redefining the new NATO concept, which even more points to the necessity of actual reconsideration of the existing solutions and introduction of essential novelties in this, very important area.

Novi strategijski koncept NATO-a usvojen je krajem 2010. godine. Pre toga objavljena je ruska inicijativa za stvaranje nove arhitekture evropske bezbednosti. Da li su ovim aktivnostima stavovi 'Istoka' i 'Zapada' o jednom od najvažnijih pitanja današnjice - ličnoj i kolektivnoj bezbednosti - bliži nego ranije i da li je svet posle tih inicijativa bezbedniji i uređeniji, pokazaće vreme. Ovaj rad nema ambiciju da daje konačne odgovore na ta i druga pitanja. To je samo pokušaj da se uoče osnovni aspekti postojećih razlika između Rusije i Zapada u poimanju problema bezbednosti i da se, na tom fonu, čitaocima uputi svojevrsni intelektualni izazov i poziv da kroz prizmu metamorfoze odnosa dve tradicionalno suprotstavljene strane sami analiziraju savremenost u sferi bezbednosti. Osnovna postavka analize problema zasnovana je na činjenici da su razlike između NATO, SAD i Evrope, s jedne strane i Rusije, sa druge, u pristupu opštim problemima, a u sferi bezbednosti posebno, i dalje veoma značajne i da predstavljaju veliku, često nepremostivu prepreku za pokretanje pravog dijaloga. Ovo tim više što poslednje inicijative, sadržane u novom strategijskom konceptu NATO-a i ruskom predlogu za redefinisanje evropske arhitekture bezbednosti, nedvosmisleno sadrže inicijativu i želju za dijalogom. Takva nastojanja, nažalost, u dosadašnjoj praksi uglavnom nisu davala očekivane rezultate! Ruska ideja pokrenuta je na osnovi nove Koncepcije ruske spoljne politike, a vremenski se podudara i sa procesom redefinisanja novog koncepta NATO, što još više ukazuje na neophodnost stvarnog preispitivanja postojećih rešenja i uvođenja suštinskih novina u ovoj, veoma značajnoj oblasti.