Abstract

Pending a Decision on the Main Issue: Dilemmas of European Security DANIEL ENGER, ROBERT PENDLEY and CHARLES BALL New Hope, then New Reality: Waking Up to a Harsh Post-Cold War World In four short years the spectacular euphoria about the future of security arrangements among European states (and with North America) follow- ing the collapse of the Wall, the Soviet regime, and then the Cold War, has evaporated. The new image of the future centred around visions of intensified EC integration, enlarged mutual security organizations, tre- mendous opportunities for economic growth in both East and West, and common and co-ordinated approaches to solving security crises within Europe, on its periphery, and in other parts of the globe of mutual con- cern. That image has collided with several unpredicted and unsettling realities, and the current vision of the future has faded to at best a dim and fuzzy version of the original. Faced with the truly formidable mone- tary costs of reintegrating Germany and dealing with a Russia and Eastern Europe which are essentially bankrupt, the main European eco- nomies remain stagnant. That plus profound national differences over how best to manage fiscal difficulties (especially public debt, and in- terest