European Security Organizations in the Post-Cold-War Security Environment. The New Frame of European Security

摘要

The end of the Cold War marked for Europe the entrance into an era of instability and violence caused by the collapse of the old communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. How the European security organizations reacted to those changes and new threats and transformed themselves for dealing with a new security environment is the focus of this thesis. In particular, it gives an over view of the transformations that occurred within NATO and OSCE in the post-Cold War period, which have created and developed new security mechanisms and policies for dealing with crises. The thesis further examines the consolidation of a new European security actor, the European Union, and the development of the military dimension through the ESDP, which is liked directly to transformations that occurred in Europe, being merely a consequence of those changes. All three organization proved their importance as stability factors of the European security system by launching crisis management operations, acting in cease fire and post-conflict mediation, conducting preventive diplomacy, and spreading democracy and principles of human rights.