Global security: Brian Lynch reports on a recent conference in Bratislava.

• Author: Lynch, Brian
• Position: CONFERENCE REPORT - The Global Security Forum, Slovakia - Conference news

An Asia-Pacific focused assessment of present global hot spots would likely highlight fractious relations among the big powers in North-east Asia, tensions on the Korean peninsula, and the jockeying for position and power projection in the South China Sea. It is rather chastening to discover that through a completely different lens, the planets darker place is half the world away. The Global Security Forum hosted by the Slovak Atlantic Commission in Bratislava from 14 to 16 May 2014 was almost entirely centred on the current concerns of continental Europe, notwithstanding the website's promise that issues to be discussed were those that presently 'concentrated minds from Washington to Wellington.' Apart from frequent references to the United States and a few to China, the rest of the planet barely rated a mention.

There were, of course, sound and substantial reasons for the agenda's primary focus being close to home. Recent events, including Russia's annexation of Crimea and continuing unrest in Ukraine, had revived some old regional nightmares, felt all the more acutely on the eve of the anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. If those events were not worrisome enough, there was apprehension over the lingering effects of the euro-zone crisis, and about disturbing trends in the European body politic that cast doubt in many continental quarters whether 'The European Story' could be sustained or even survive. The imminent elections to the European Parliament, scheduled between 22 and 25 May 2014, loomed as a crucial test for the resilience of pro-European sentiment in the face of significant populist and extremist opposition.

Another stark reality also provided part of the sombre backdrop to the conference that many participants found disquieting. For two decades and more since the Berlin Wall crumbled and took the Soviet empire with it, European leaders had been able to count on the support of the United States, enjoying unipolar supremacy, to help overcome their spasms of self-doubt. Unquestionably the trans-Atlantic bonds remain strong. Their continuing relevance could indeed be enhanced by Russia's recent provocative behaviour. However, times have changed. The United States is adamant that in the post-Afghanistan and post-Iraq era it cannot continue to bear the burden of 'protecting the free world' alone or in large part. Its NATO allies and partners are expected to do much more of the heavy lifting, economically and militarily. The tenor of some interventions at this conference suggested that not all allies are yet ready to step up to the mark.

Definitive positives

That sobering background was not allowed to overshadow recognition and celebration of some definite positives. One was the passing of a quarter-century since the Cold War ended. Another was to welcome the first decade of European Union and NATO membership of several members of the old 'Eastern bloc'. Among these most prominently were the partners who make up the Visegrad group: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. This quartet is clearly coming together as a credible piece of regional architecture in its own right, growing in self-confidence, coherent thinking and as a source of ideas and action for both the European Union and NATO. Their positive outlook came through as a timely antidote to the embedded euro-scepticism in parts of northern Europe and persistent economic weaknesses and resentment in the southern sector, where people felt battered by the austerity measures imposed on them.

Accepting that circumstances determined the agenda should be narrowly confined, there could be no complaint about the calibre and influence of the speakers assembled to address it. One panel comprised the four Visegrad prime ministers, another consisted of their defence ministers, and altogether eight foreign ministers took part. Other notables attending were the secretary-general of NATO, Anders Rasmussen; the former commander of ISAF in Afghanistan, General John Allen; the relevant US State Department assistant secretary, Victoria Nuland; and George Friedman, founder of Stratfor, arguably...