Towards a New Architecture of European Security

The new order of European security is in a process of legitimation. The strategies to be implemented, and the institutions to be created, have already been identified. The principal players in this process are the United States and the members of the European Union (EU). The institutions which will ostensibly create this new architecture of European security are the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Western European Union (WEU) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). This essay studies the construction of a common policy on security and foreign affairs in the EU, as well as the most serious obstacles which this policy will have to overcome. It also analyzes the emergence of a new structure in European security, and the feasibility of an understanding between Russia and the Atlantic Alliance. The pacification of Bosnia Herzegovina, and in particular the consensus which was finally established regarding the deployment of a Peace Keeping Operation in this region, demonstrates that the construction of a new system of European security, endowed with the necessary legitimacy, is indeed feasible.