Security challenges in the Caucasus and Central Asia

So how are European actors responding to these security risks? The European Union has yet to come up with a strategic neighborhood concept including the Caucasus as well as an energy policy that would comprise infrastructural concepts and their implementation as well as a political safeguarding in Europe and the Caucasus-Centra Asian area. Only 9/11 triggered a EU council strategy decision on Central Asia to promote regional cooperation between the five countries regarding trade, fight against terrorism and drug trafficking as well as water management.

Additionally, the EU is promoting an institutional framework for conflict management together with other relevant players. While the EU is lacking a strategy, it has tools like the TACIS programme (Technical Assistance for the Commonwealth of Independent States), the TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe Caucasus Asia) project, and INOGATE (aiming at rehabilitation, modernization and rationalisation of Interstate oil and gas Pipelines in the NIS). Moreover, the EU has signed 'Partnership and Cooperation Agreements' (PCA) with all successor states of the Soviet Union.

The main task of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) today is the consolidation of common values, the development of civil societies, the prevention of local conflicts and the restoration of peace and stability in zones of military conflict. One of the most important OSCE tools are the long term field missions acting on the basis of the integrity of states and the simultaneous support for ethnic minorities, democracy and human rights. Since 1995 these missions are complemented by OSCE liaison offices. Thus, an areawide OSCE mission presence has been achieved in the Caucasus-Central Asia regions. Other OSCE tools are the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), the Representative on Freedom of the Media and the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities. The OSCE is the only European political institution where the countries from the region have full membership rights. With a view on Russia, this allows a higher degree of independence and options. However, the limits of the OSCE are clear, as the consensus principle is often used in a restrictive way.

The evolutionary adjustment process of NATO takes place on three levels. Inside NATO, the preconditions for the management of the new tasks like crisis management are created. On a second level, NATO has an open door policy, according to President Bush, to "all democracies from the Baltic to the Black Sea". On a third level NATO is stepping up cooperation with states that are not able or willing to join the alliance in the framework of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) and the "Partnership for Peace initiative" (PfP) with a view on increasing cooperation with partner countries. As a result of 9/11, the strategic importance of the Caucasus-Central Asia area has increased and simultaneously led to an increased desire to cooperate more closely with the concerned states. This led to an upgraded mechanism of 'Individual Partnership Action Plans' adopted at the Prague summit last year, allowing more individualised and more comprehensive relations between the Alliance and interested Partners.

The centrepiece of the intergovernmental Council of Europe (CoE) is the protection of Human Rights by the "Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms" and the "European Court of Human Rights" in Strasbourg. Russia joined the Council of Europe in 1996. Georgia joined in 1999, and Armenia together with Azerbaijan in 2001. The CoE has become increasingly involved in conflict prevention and post-conflict rehabilitation in the region. In Chechnya, CoE experts at times where the only international presence. A permanent presence in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia was established. September 11 led to an updating of the "European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism" in order to remove obstacles to a more effective cooperation. Moreover, guidelines on Human Rights and the fight against terrorism were adopted.