Külpolitika - A Magyar Külügyi Intézet folyóirata - 1996 (2. évfolyam)
1996 / 2. szám - ESEMÉNYNAPTÁR - Resumé
Résumé are witnessing today a general slowdown of these efforts. In some instances, positions of member States have further hardened. UN reform is a vital necessity to meet the dramatic challenges of our era. The inadequate treatment of global problems can easily lead to destabilization. Rudolf Joó: Ethnic Conflicts and International Security in Central-East Europe After the end of the Cold War, the "Pandora's Box" of the ethnic problems was reopened in Central and Eastern Europe. The nationality strife is a century old phenomenon in this region, but the conditions in which it re-energed in the 1990s were radically new. After 1945, during more than four decades, the Cold War division of the continent, especially the "Pax Sovietica" in its Eastern part, transformed this historically troubled region into a "peaceful" one. But the cost of this stability were considerable, especially in respect of political freedoms and national sovereignity of the individual countries. The first chapter of the article analyses the combination of old and new elements in current ethnic tensions. Understanding the roots of conflict and the true nature of ethno- national resurgence is key for their appropriate management. There is no compelling historical evidence that ethnic tensions inevitably escalate into open conflict. Policy directed at the root causes of ethnic tensions has been empirically been proven to be effective in improving the situation. In both human and material terms, crisis prevention is always more cost-effective than crisis-management. The second part of the article overviews recent developments in the international protection of national minorities on both normative and international level. The initiatives of universal and regional organizations (UN, OSCE, Council of Europe) are examined, and some successfull arrangements of multiethnic coexistence (such as those of Switzerland, Finland, Italy/South Tyrol, Canada) are also presented. Beside legal/institutional changes, an efficient management of ethnic tensions needs to promote the value and capacity of compromise among the involved communities and has to encourage their communications. The means to achieve these goals is discussed too: the role of the education, of the media, and of institutionalizing inter-ethnic dialog through various governmental and non-governmental fora. The third part of the study analyses the embedment of the inter-ethnic tensions in a multinational framework. Current cooperation with NATO and EU/WEU, and especially future extension of euro-atlantic institutions widen the horizon of examples for minorities and majorities, and create a larger area of shared values and shared codes of conduct. This process encourages regional and sub-regional cooperation and might create international mechanisms which prevent escalation of ethnic tensions. In Central and Eastern Europe a new paradigm in needed in interethnic relations: the peace by containment has to be replace by peace by conviction. For an accommodation of 1996. nyár 137
