Security South - Eastern Anton Bebler

At present no war is being fought in SEE. However this outward tranquility was imposedfrom outside through energetic military interventions by the West, the establishment of international military and security protectorates over parts of the region, as well as by stationing peace-keeping troops, international police, armed and unarmed foreign observers at the hottest trouble spots in SEE. The suppression of armed hostilities did not however add up to real and durable peace. Thus security in the region still remains precarious. Security problems of South-Eastern Europe have been by and large concentrated in or directly related to the area called the Balkans. As mentioned earlier these two expressions are not synonymous. South-Eastern Europe is a wider notion which was recently given by the Western powers a curious political dimension supplementing its geographic content. The active involvement of NATO and EU member states in SEE as well as the presence of international peace-keeping forces will be necessary for, at least, a decade in order to prevent new outbursts of violence. However the structures of two international protectorates cannot provide for self-sustaining political and social stability in the area.