European Security

European Security Institutions: Ready for the 21st Century?

Published in 2000, European Security Institutions: Ready for the 21st Century? is the final report on a two-year study initiated in 1997 by IFPA and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. The study, designed to review the adaptation of Europe's various security institutions and to assess whether they are ready to meet the security challenges of the twenty-first century, had two major components:

A detailed analysis of NATO's completed and planned internal adaptation and enlargement with the goal of informing recommendations for institutional changes to address future challenges to European security. In this part of the study the authors investigated NATO's institutional development since 1989, weighed the lessons of Bosnia and Kosovo, discuss NATO's relationship with other security organs, and evaluated prospects for additional reform. Completion of this portion of the project coincided with the NATO fiftieth anniversary summit meeting in April 1999.
The findings of five case studies that analyze the performance of institutions other than NATO in adapting to meet Europe's new security challenges. Each case covers an issue that could become a serious security problem for Europe, possibly escalating to deadly interstate conflict. The case studies analyze the institution's role in addressing the issues and provide recommendations for how the institution in question could do or could have done a better job.
The cases examined include the European Union's work both on preventive diplomacy in the Mediterranean region and on crisis management in Albania; the G-7/P-8's initiatives addressing international crime; and the OSCE's efforts to discourage secessionism in Nagorno-Karabakh and its work on the issue of Russian minorities in the Baltics.

Along with the intensive research and analysis effort itself, this project encompassed a series of working-group meetings. The working-group meetings were highly focused sessions in which to critique and expand on the research conducted.