Umstrittene Schweizer Sicherheitspolitik ... - ETH Zürich

Ausland
However, in order to achieve that goal, each European nation must have
a vision and have a pro-active and creative foreign and security policy.
Being independent in making decisions does not mean to be isolationist.
I believe that isolationists in Europe will lose: they will pay more and get
less. Having an independent foreign and security policy, combined with
a collective security approach, having a vision and being prepared to do
a lot of hard daily work – that is what I believe is necessary to avoid a
failure and to avoid a major European drama of opportunities lost in the
face of current and future threats.
Diskussion
Thalmann Anton: Thank you very much four your highly interesting
explanations. I would like to put four questions to you:
684
1. What is your general assessment of the probability of a return of
Cold War to Europe? I ask you that question because in Swiss
public opinion this conditions to some extent the manoeuvring
space we have in foreign security policy.
2. Do you think that the present economic crisis could, as pessimists
believe, lead to social unrest and to the disintegration of political
consensus structures, with Europe, as a result, going back to confrontation?
3. What is Russia’s threat perception with regard to Iran? If the US
gave Russia a fairer deal with regard to common management of
the Iranian threat – in the context of the missile shield and so on
– do you think that could change Russia’s attitude?
4. You said that there was little probability of nuclear war. What
would you say about the probability of a nuclear mishap and of
terrorist threats with nuclear means?