Session III - The Modern Security Architecture: Challenges and Opportunities (Chatham House Rules)

Twenty-four years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union the speed by which the post-cold war European security architecture is disintegrating is truly alarming. Russian military intervention in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2014, respective occupation of Georgian regions of Abhkazia and South Ossetia and of Crimea in Ukraine, on-going war in the Eastern Ukraine are indicators leaving no room for uncertainty that a new security structure is being forced upon the European Continent. Russia is skillfully using all the means of hybrid warfare including information war, energy dependency leverage and political lobbying in order to question the concept of the European cooperative security and undermine its security strategy. With the view of resolving the current crisis and increasing cooperation and stability in the region the European security strategy needs to incorporate more coherent policies and new forms of addressing existing challenges in order to ensure peace, stability and prosperity of the Continent.