Global Security: in Search of a New Vision - Center for Strategic ...

Chapter 8
The Fragmentation of Security and the Need for
A New, Legally Binding Security Treaty
Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov 1
The topic of this panel con tains, if care fully read, an ele ment of par a dox. It addresses polit i cal
per spec tives on global secu rity while focus ing on a spe cific region—from the Bal tic to the Black
Sea. Rep re sent ing the only coun try that stretches from the Bal tic to the Black Sea and far beyond,
I would like to make a point that we have been dis cuss ing on numer ous occa sions, includ ing at last year’s
work shop, whether geog ra phy mat ters when we speak of secu rity. Indeed, we are liv ing in a glob al iz ing
world, in a vir tu ally global econ omy. Most of the chal lenges that we face today are of a global nature,
start ing from the rec og nized pro cess of redis tri bu tion of wealth and eco nomic activ ity from the
so-called old world to Asia and other con ti nents; the shift of finan cial power—the two most impor tant
cur ren cies in the world are still the U.S. dol lar and the Euro, but most of the dol lars and the euros are
accu mu lated nei ther in the U.S. nor in the Euro pean Union; cli mate change—it can only be per ceived and
han dled as a global problem; migra tion; and of course terrorism.
THE SECURITY SPACE FRAGMENTATION
So what we see is an obvi ous dis crep ancy. Liv ing in a glob al ized world, we still address secu rity issues,
par tic u larly those of hard secu rity, or mil i tary secu rity, from an out dated base line perspective of view ing
secu rity in geo graphic terms. As a result, we wit ness attempts to address new secu rity chal lenges with
tools of the mid-20 th cen tury. More over, what we see today is the frag men ta tion of the secu rity space in
the Euro-Atlan tic area. Today, there is an acute def i cit of stra te gic for mats. Yes, one might pose the coun -
ter-argu ment that we all belong to the OSCE, and I would agree that the OSCE could have become an
appro pri ate for mat to address secu rity chal lenges in this broad Euro pean sense which also includes
North Amer ica on the one side and Cen tral Asia on the other. Unfor tu nately, the OSCE has failed in this
his toric mis sion. Nine years ago, I was pres ent at the famous Istan bul Sum mit of the OSCE which most
peo ple now remem ber from tiny bits and pieces like bilat eral arrange ments con cluded on the side lines of
the sum mit. Much less often, the main prod uct of the sum mit is remem bered: the Char ter of Euro pean
1
Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov is the Russian Federation's Ambassador to the EU.