Suchergebnisse

The article views the geographical area between the EU and Russian borders as a battle space of two, drastically different foreign policy and ideological approaches. The authors argue that in the years since the end of the Cold War, a unique surrogate of former clash of liberal and communist worlds emerged, leading to and underpinning current Hybrid Warfare, underway from Ukraine to Georgia. Its roots lay in the Russian interpretation of the Western attitude towards the East as Neo-colonialist. Relying on the income from its vast energy resources, Russia also tries to develop its version of so called "Soft Power", used by the West in this region. Though in Russian hands, it is coupled with Moscow's imperial experiences and resentments, and is becoming a mere element in Hybrid or "non-linear" war. Speaking retrospectively, the Eastern Partnership Initiative of the European Union can be seen as a response to Hybrid threats, posed by Russia against its Western and Southern neighbors. But the question is, whether EU foreign policy initiatives towards this area can and will be efficient and sufficient, if continued to be mostly defensive and limited within Soft Power mechanisms and philosophy, while Russia successfully combines those with traditional Hard Power know-how? The authors argue that in the long run, European or Euro-Atlantic Soft Power tool-kits, spreading Human Rightsbased culture farther in the East, will remain unmatched. But in order to prevail over the Russian revisionist policy here and now, the West, and, particularly, the EU need to re-evaluate traditional foreign policy options and come up with a more drastic combination of Soft/Hard Powers by itself. As the Georgian case shows, the European community should more efficiently use Conditionality and Coercive Diplomacy, combined with clearer messages about partners' membership perspectives.

The article analyzes civil-military relations and security sector transformation in Georgia since independence, and finds: 1) civilmilitary relations play an important role in internal politics, international relations and standing of the country; 2) civil-military relations fluctuate between: heads of uniformed agencies dominating the political process, or the political elite sacrificing the professionalism of the security and military establishment to power squabbles; 3) Georgia presents a case of military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies becoming hostage to confrontations of the political elite – warring factions continuously undermine the efficiency and integrity of national security for the narrow purpose of taking advantage of each other; 4) If continued, Georgia's stability remains precarious and existing programmes of intensive cooperation with NATO and the EU will not result in security enhancement, modernization and democratization; 5) Nevertheless, the obligations for democratic security governance, vis-à-vis the international community, will eventually enable Georgia to overcome internal squabbles and undemocratic tendencies.

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Table of Contents -- Christoph Meißner, Jörg Morré | Introduction -- The Context of the Withdrawals from East Central Europe -- Tim Geiger | Disarmament and the End of the Cold War -- Hans-Henning Schröder, Christoph Meißner | 'New Thinking' and its Effects on Soviet Foreign and Security Policy -- Markus Mirschel, Michael Galbas | War Returnees as Transformation Accelerators -- Christoph Meißner | The Search for a New Security Structure in Eastern Europe Through the Example of the Dissolution of the Soviet Army -- The Withdrawal of Soviet/Russian Forces from Germany -- Matthias Uhl | The Armed Forces in Germany in the Changed Soviet Defence Strategy Under Gorbachev -- Alexei Sindeyev | The Withdrawal of Soviet Troops from Germany -- Christoph Meißner | The Withdrawal of the Western Group of Forces from Germany -- Christoph Lorke | Shaping and Negotiating the Withdrawal -- Sascha Gunold | 'Withdrawal Under Observation' -- Markus Hennen | Conversion in Germany Through the Example of the Federal State of Brandenburg -- The Withdrawal of Soviet/Russian Forces from East Central Europe -- Dávid Kiss | The Withdrawal of Soviet Troops from Hungary and Hungarian Security Relations -- Barnabás Vajda | The Soviet Army Stationing and its Legacy in Czechoslovakia and at Fortress Komárno -- Agnieszka Kastory | International Aspects of the Withdrawal of Soviet Troops from Poland and Germany -- The Withdrawal of Russian Forces from States of the Former Soviet Union -- Sophie Momzikoff | International Aspects of the Russian Troops' Withdrawal from the Baltics -- Dovilė Jakniūnaitė, Valentinas Beržiūnas | Russia and the Baltic States after Regaining Independence -- David Darchiashvili, Michael Machavariani | The Empire Fights Back.