Conclusions

Abstract

The security environment in Europe has changed radically since 1989 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the attempted August 1991 coup, reunification of Germany, the disintegration of the states created by the 1918 Versailles Treaty (Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia), the developments in Western Europe as a result of the Maastricht Treaty, the emergence of fledgling democracies in Eastern Europe accompanied by economic instability, ethnic violence in parts of the former Soviet Union, and refugee movements generated by numerous civil wars. These and many other security concerns have presented Europe with the tremendously difficult task of designing a coherent response.