Bundesheer

EDITOR’S PREFACE The world we live in seems to be far too interdependent today to be only a place where terms such as security or power can be easily described and understood. As the actors of the international scene draw closer together, telecommunications make the exchange of thoughts, goods or money much faster than ever, people need to face fundamental changes first in their homes, but at the same time while taking a look around, on the planet. Individual "planetary consciousness” and responsibility are on the rise, although it takes time to reach the level where communities consciously take responsibility over daily issues affecting the environment, and find direct connections between the local and global levels. A mental change is needed for sustaining our future; otherwise human beings will find themselves in deeper troubles than they can imagine today.

Among many crucial issues of our interdependent world security has numerous faces. Due to the interconnected nature of questions that surround us, security on its own is hard to define, too. It has become a "global term”, with dimensions interweaving the planet and our everyday lives. It is not just about military capabilities to defend a country or the desire for peace and prosperity in any human community; economic stability, social security, the elimination of wars, the fight against terrorism, multinational co-operation among nations for the betterment of daily life, and many other aspects are to be taken into account when approaching this multi-faceted.

As the 2001 Nobel-prize winner in economics Joseph Stiglitz put it, "The barbaric attacks of September 11, 2001, have brought home with great force that we all share a single planet. We are a global community, and like all communities have to follow some rules so that we can live together. These rules must be—and must be seen to be—fair and just, must pay due attention to the poor as well as the powerful, must reflect a basic sense of decency and social justice.” (Stiglitz, 2002: XV). In light of these demands, first of all, people are required to learn about and understand the rules of the global game. To multiply the effect of any civic education, the academia and higher education in total a crucial role to play.

In close co-operation with Hungarian security experts, there has been a constant flow of information and a frequent series of debates, supported by the University of Pécs and other institutions of higher education, since November 1997 when on the eve of the national referendum of Hungary’s joining NATO the first international security conference was held in Pécs, "City for the Peace” Prize of UNESCO (1998) and City of World Cultural Heritage (2000). Six years later, when Hungary was celebrating its fourth year as member of the Alliance, between 11 and 13 March 2003, the 2nd International NATO conference was held in the South-Transdanubian regional centre.

Following the success of these two events, in the last months of 2004 we arranged a series of lectures under the auspices of the "Europe Centre PBC”, which runs the Europe House / International House in Pécs. This time, we again invited well-known Hungarian and foreign experts, with whom we have developed and maintained a good professional and personal relationship since our first event back in 1997. The symposium-series was given the title "Globalising Security Policy” and took place once every month between October and December 2004. Lectures centred around the topic of the strategic partnership between NATO and the European Union, the role of NATO in European security, and in shaping global international security policy, furthermore, the place and role in global security of those countries, which are not members of either organisations, but which are of major importance with respect to security policy (the Ukraine, Russia and countries of the Balkans).

The present book is the selected proceedings of the symposia and contains seventeen papers, which are organised under three major thematic headings:

1. Globalising security policy and terrorism. U.S. and EU perspectives; 2. Security in Russia, the Ukraine and the Balkans; 3. The co-operation of the V4 within NATO and the EU. The authors represent views from nine countries, two continents, and offer an insight both into Transatlantic security and questions of regional security in Central and South-Eastern Europe in view of the enlargement of the European Union.

Based upon the experiences of the meetings we have organised so far, there is a strong commitment that we will continue managing the pool of ideas around core topics connected with security. Also, with the aim of taking a responsible stance on education about global issues, and contributing to encouraging discussions about current questions of world affairs and international relations, we will remain engaged with publishing books and journals which we hope will be useful for students majoring in Political Science, International Relations, or any related scientific field, as well as for those interested in learning more about such themes in the twenty-first century. So, our mission in this respect is even more important today.

I do hope the reader will find the individual papers as well as the entire volume interesting and scientifically challenging, and will contact our website to get information about forthcoming events on a regular basis. The site www.nato.interhouse.hu also contains the papers in a downloadable format.

May 2005 The Editor