International Conference:
New Geopolitics of Central and Eastern Europe.
Between European Union and United States
Warsaw, May 7-8, 2004
C o n f e r e n c e p a r t n e r s :
Embassy of the French Republic
The Conference was organised by the Stefan Batory Foundation, in cooperation with the Foundation Science and Policy (SWP) from Berlin and the European Studies Centre of St. Antony's College, Oxford University.
During Session I, entitled ‘Between Germany and Russia, Europe and America: historical points of reference of Central and Eastern Europe’ and chaired by the Secretary of State in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Adam D. Rotfeld, the discussion of panellists (Marcin Król from University of Warsaw, Jacques Rupnik from the Centre for International Studies and Research (CERI) in Paris and Timothy Snyder from Yale University) focused on intellectual and political traditions and choices.
Session II, ‘Europe in US policy’ was chaired by the former Foreign Minister of Poland, Andrzej Olechowski. David Calleo from Johns Hopkins University in Washington, Pierre Hassner from the Centre for International Studies and Research (CERI) in Paris, Ken Jowitt from University of California and Anne-Marie Slaughter from Princeton University reflected on the following issues: is the US interested in further European integration?; ‘coalition of the willing’; the role of NATO; ‘new Europe’ in the US strategy towards Europe and in the US policy towards Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. In particular, Anne-Marie Slaughter stressed that after the UE enlargement, the US will have to give more consideration to the European stance, especially in the dimension of security, but also in the field of domestic policies, due to the fact that the diasporas of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe, apart from representing their countries of origin, will also – automatically – become advocates of interests of the united Europe.
The second day of the conference opened with Session III ‘European attitudes towards US and transatlantic relations’ chaired by Timothy Garton-Ash from University of Oxford. ‘Old’ and ‘new’ Europes: security and sovereignty preoccupations, attitudes towards Euro-Atlantic community and prospects of overcoming European divisions were among the issues submitted for discussion by the organisers and elaborated on by Christoph Bertram, (director of Foundation Science and Policy SWP), Robert Cooper (Director-General for External and Politico-Military Affairs at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union), Ivan Krastev from the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia and Dominique Moisi from the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) in Paris.
An intensely debated issue was the finalite’ geographique of the European Union, and in particular - the possibility of extending the EU membership to Turkey and Ukraine. The vision of Ukraine’s accession led to an argument between Christoph Bertram who claimed that the future of the country lay beyond the EU borders, and Robert Cooper who indicated that only through farther extension East and South would the EU be able to ensure security of its external borders. The public joined the discussion by unanimously supporting Robert Cooper’s position.
The afternoon proceedings started with a special lecture delivered by Henry A. Kissinger, former US Secretary of State who spoke about “America and Europe facing new challenges”. Dr Kissinger stressed that the challenges the modern world has to come to terms with go beyond the classic notion of sovereignty collocated within the framework of categories set by the Westphalian Treaty of 1648. One of the new challenges is the privatisation of security which implies that private groups acting within the territories of sovereign states – but independent from them – constitute at present the most serious threat to the international system of security. Within this context, according to Dr Kissinger, the American acceptance of the pre-emption principle is intellectually correct.
Session IV ‘Central and Eastern Europe in search of a place in Europe and worldwide’ (suggested discussion items were inter alia attempts to define a model of European community, Interests, aspirations and expectations of Central and Eastern Europe: divergent choices between Europe and Transatlantic community) was chaired by the President of Stefan Batory Foundation, Aleksander Smolar and the panellists were Timothy Garton-Ash, former Polish Foreign Minister Bronis³aw Geremek, Heather Grabbe from the Centre for European Reform in London and Elemér Hankiss from the Hungarian Academy of Science in Budapest.
The Conference was enriched also by the participation of a number of Stefan Batory Foundation guests - academics and policy makers from Central Eastern Europe Countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia). The Sessions met with a very high interest of Polish and foreign academics and analysts, representatives of central administration, journalists, diplomats and NGOs workers, as well as students of a number of universities.
Forthcoming is the publication containing complete conference proceedings in Polish and English (prepared in cooperation with the quarterly ‘Przegl±d Polityczny’ (Political Review).
Copyright © Fundacja Batorego
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