ACCESSION NUMBER:312834
FILE ID:FAR101
DATE:11/05/93
TITLE:Global Issues in Transition, No. 5 (11/05/93)
TEXT:*FAR101   11/05/93

Global Issues in Transition, No. 5

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR
     The end of the Cold War, while opening unprecedented
opportunities for peace and progress, also presented Europe and
the West with unexpected tasks in adjusting political and
security institutions for the sudden disappearance of long-term
threats and the emergence or re-emergence of other threats.
Of particular interest in this context is the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO).  Global Issues in Transition provides
here a number of analyses of the future of this Western
institution that proved so successful in preserving European
security during the Cold War.  Some see NATO slated for the
ash-heap of history, while others find it ideally suited for a
new range of security missions against threats on the periphery
of Europe or yet further afield.  Any future NATO will doubtless
be a changed NATO, meshing its efforts with distinctive West
European security arrangements --whether the Western European
Union, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, or
the Franco-German Eurocorps -- and with the UnitedNations
Security Council.
      In the meantime, countries of Eastern Europe find their
aspirations to become part of NATO and the European Community
thwarted, or at the very least, postponed.  In the meantime,
Western institutions can help ease the perception among East and
Central European leaders of a "security gap" in the region and
foster their mutual relationships and evolution toward
Western-style free-market democracies.
1     As these issues evolve, Western Europe must cope with
crises in its own progress toward integration.  The close call on
ratification of the Maastricht Agreement and the disruption of
currencies associated with movement toward monetary union
highlight the need for a new, more realistic, more democratic
thrust to the whole integration effort.  While progress may not
be as swift and painless as the Maastricht agreement of December
1991 implied, there are hopeful signs of realism in the
individual actions and interactions of West European states as
they work out the complex monetary and political issues involved
in integration.
-- Wayne Hall, Editor
NNNN

.