A Rude Awakening: European Security and Georgia
By Jonathan Eyal
26 Sep 2008
For the first time since the terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001, the European Union held in early September a summit of its heads of states and governments devoted to a single foreign policy issue: relations with Russia. Usually, EU summits are highly scripted affairs, in which diplomatic showmanship invariably counts for more than substance. The extraordinary summit on 9/11 was no different: the Europeans claimed at the time to be ‘all American’, but soon reverted to their old trans-Atlantic disputes and, arguably, their old complacency. Not this time, however. For the recent war between Russia and Georgia has plunged Europe into its biggest security crisis in decades. And, for once, Georgia is not a matter which can be left to the Americans alone, with the Europeans criticising what Washington is doing from the sidelines.
26 Sep 2008
For the first time since the terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001, the European Union held in early September a summit of its heads of states and governments devoted to a single foreign policy issue: relations with Russia. Usually, EU summits are highly scripted affairs, in which diplomatic showmanship invariably counts for more than substance. The extraordinary summit on 9/11 was no different: the Europeans claimed at the time to be ‘all American’, but soon reverted to their old trans-Atlantic disputes and, arguably, their old complacency. Not this time, however. For the recent war between Russia and Georgia has plunged Europe into its biggest security crisis in decades. And, for once, Georgia is not a matter which can be left to the Americans alone, with the Europeans criticising what Washington is doing from the sidelines.
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