Connections

September 2001

 

Editorial Welcome
By Peter Foot

 

Peter Foot is Deputy Dean of Academic Studies (External Relations), Defense Studies Department, King's College, London, Joint Service Command and Staff College.

 

On behalf of the Editorial Board of the PfP Consortium, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the first issue of the CONNECTIONS Quarterly Journal. As Convener of the Board, I am delighted to recommend it as a new and striking entrant to the professional literature serving the many defense academies and security studies institutes across the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) community.

The Journal has a number of features that mark its contribution as distinctive and constructive. First, it will be available in four languages, Russian, German, French and English, enabling a long-term supply of scholarly material across the EAPC countries. ₁ Especially in countries where access to the full range of security debate is hard to get hold of, this will meet a real need for military educators and security researchers. Over time, this should help to reduce the height of intellectual and informational walls that still exist, despite the tremendous achievements of the past decade. Secondly, its focus is the Partner countries and their security interests and challenges. This is not, therefore, yet another vehicle for traditional, rather self-absorbed transatlantic introspection. Thirdly, each issue will combine the study of a broad EAPC security problem and relate it to a specific region. Future issues will cover, among other things: the Balkans, seen from the perspective of rebuilding civil order and societies after a conflagration; corruption and demographic change as security problems for Russia and Ukraine; and the prevention of internal conflict in adjacent small states, in this case throughout the Caucasus area, from becoming a larger regional problem.

The current Quarterly is devoted to the subject of ESDI/CESFP, ₂ allied to the wider issue of the enlargement of previously Western multilateral institutions. The Editorial Board is grateful to Major General Alain Faupin for masterminding the contributions on the main subject. Furthering the policy to use the Consortium website to its fullest extent, two additional pieces have been provided for the present discussion. They serve as important background to the debate about ESDI/CESDP. They are: "The CESDP of the European Union: The Way to Nice and Beyond," by Ambassador Eric P Hochleitner and "The Common Security and Defense of Europe after Nice," by Colonel Hartmut Buhl. ₃ Both can be accessed at the Publications part of the website: www.pfpconsortium.org/.

It is a particular pleasure to inaugurate with this first edition of the Quarterly a special section devoted to the excellent work that is done by students from Partner nations at a variety of education and training establishments. The first one is by Mihaela Vasiu, ₄ an official with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bucharest, Romania, recently completing the Executive Program at the Marshall Center, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. It splendidly embodies the values of the Consortium's Quarterly, in that:

• It brings a fresh Partner perspective to bear on NATO enlargement, the predominant policy theme in transatlantic relations, based as it is on deep insights into Romanian attitudes that illuminate more than just the view from Bucharest.
• The publication is timely, contributing constructively to the debate before the NATO meeting in Prague 2002 to decide on the second phase of enlargement.
• The work is of an intellectual quality that allows it easily to hold its place alongside material from more established, Western figures, and is an example to encourage other young scholars, officers and officials in Partner nations to use the publication possibilities offered by the Consortium to the greatest extent.

Specific subject matter is less important than the quality of contribution to the security debate. Commandants and Course Directors are warmly encouraged to contact me directly with their candidates for this publications slot. ₅

Please let us know how we might better serve your educational, training and research interests in the family of Consortium publications, including this one. In the meantime, members of the Editorial Board join me in hoping that the Quarterly will be everything you wish it to be.

Endnotes

Note 1: This is true of all PfP Consortium publications. In some cases, some language versions may be available only electronically through the website www.pfpconsortium.org. Back

Note 2: The acronyms stand for, receptively, European Security and Defense Identity and Common European Security and Foreign Policy.Back

Note 3: Ambassador Hochleitner is the author of the CONNECTIONS Athena Paper, Number 1, The Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, October 2001, also available on the website. Back

Note 4: With Michael Schmitt. Back

Note 5: They can be submitted in any of the Consortium's four working languages. The Consortium will meet all translation costs. As general guidance, essays submitted should not be longer than 7000 words long, not counting notes and references. Back

Note 6: Professor Francois Heisbourg is the Chairman of the Geneva Center for Security Policy.Back