In this book, leading academics and policy practitioners develop approaches for managing critical contemporary and emerging security challenges for South East Europe. They attempt to conceptualize and realize security as a cooperative endeavour for collective good, in contrast to security narratives driven by power and national egotism.

With the European Union ́s upcoming eastern enlargement, Europe is confronted with the necessity of creating security and stability beyond the EU borders in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. This task includes not only numerous risks but also opportunities to face the challenges of the 21st century. This volume provides policy-oriented recommendations and differentiated assessments for all nine states and entities of the region, as well as for the policy areas of governance, economy and security. The authors explore the unintended consequences and side-effects of massive support for reforms and external influence on weak states. A concept for a "Mulit-Layered Europe" is developed for the strategic dilemmas concerning the current debate on "Wilder Europe". The unique alliance between analytical output and strategic thinking makes the book valuable for the academic community and for persons responsible for Europe ́s future. The volume is one of two from a joint project on "Security in Europa and beyond its borders" of the Bertelsmann Foundation in Guetersloh and the Center for Applied Policy Research in Munich.

As a consequence of the Kosovo war in 1999, the international community, and in particular the European Union, placed greater emphasis on conflict prevention, finally realizing that allowing crises to explode in the Balkans is more costly than taking initiatives for the construction of long-term peace and stability. In the immediate aftermath of the cessation of hostilities, the countries of the region and the international community have committed themselves to making a long-term effort in this direction. The new approach is elaborated in the "Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe", which resembled the Helsinki Process in that democratization, human rights, economic development, and security are essential constituents of stability. The thesis analyzes this conceptual political novelty, connecting comprehensively post-war reconstruction, regional cooperation and a long-term perspective of accession to the Euro-Atlantic institutions for the region. The thesis assesses the Pact's chances for success by focusing on its potential, problems, and perspectives.

Contents: Southeastern Europe: the unlikely security community? Environmental security in Southeastern Europe: a basis for regional co-operation; Russian in the Transcaucasus and Kosovo: from insecurity to security provider?; Churches and (in) security providers in Southeastern Europe; Bulgaria and the disintegration of Yugoslavia: between ethnic affinity and international commitment; regional implications of a failed transition to democracy: the case of Serbia; The internationalisation of conflict in the Transcaucasus and the former Yugoslavia; The OSCE security model for the Balkans: a viable model for the 21st century?; Lessons from UN Peacekeeping in Cyprus; Srebenica: The failure and future of safe areas; Conflict management in Southeastern Europe: the use of force as a last resort; The Georgian-Abkhazian conflict: failed realpolitik with moralistic justifications?; Rethinking the concept of peace-building: Bosnia and the lessons for Kosovo; Kosovo and the international community; Index.

Highlights from the 25-27 1999 conference.

"The Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe has recently handed over responsibility for regional co-operation in South Eastern Europe to its regionally owned successor organisation, the Regional Co-operation Council. To recapitulate the nine years of work of the Stability Pact in the field of democracy, economy and security, we decided to invite a wide range of authors and specialists to put together a comprehensive publication, that will provide an in depth analysis of the achievements of the Stability Pact and include political documents that shaped the developments of South Eastern Europe"--P. [4] of cover.

In this new Brookings Marshall Paper, Michael O'Hanlon argues that now is the time for Western nations to negotiate a new security architecture for neutral countries in eastern Europe to stabilize the region and reduce the risks of war with Russia. He believes NATO expansion has gone far enough. The core concept of this new security architecture would be one of permanent neutrality. The countries in question collectively make a broken-up arc, from Europe's far north to its south: Finland and Sweden; Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus; Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan; and finally Cyprus plus Serbia, as well as possibly several other Balkan states. Discussion on the new framework should begin within NATO, followed by deliberation with the neutral countries themselves, and then formal negotiations with Russia. The new security architecture would require that Russia, like NATO, commit to help uphold the security of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and other states in the region. Russia would have to withdraw its troops from those countries in a verifiable manner; after that, corresponding sanctions on Russia would be lifted. The neutral countries would retain their rights to participate in multilateral security operations on a scale comparable to what has been the case in the past, including even those operations that might be led by NATO. They could think of and describe themselves as Western states (or anything else, for that matter). If the European Union and they so wished in the future, they could join the EU. They would have complete sovereignty and self-determination in every sense of the word. But NATO would decide not to invite them into the alliance as members. Ideally, these nations would endorse and promote this concept themselves as a more practical way to ensure their security than the current situation or any other plausible alternative.