The other Europe: Regional security governance in Europe’s East

In the West at least, discussions of European security governance tend to focus on NATO and the EU. Yet, if one considers the European continent as a whole or the Eurasian landmass, there are large parts of this ‘European supercomplex’ (Buzan and Waever, 2003: 343-439) that are outside both NATO and the EU and in the cases of Russia and the other former Soviet states are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.1 This raises important questions about security governance in this ‘other Europe’: to what extent do regional security governance arrangements exist in this region? If so, how do they operate, whose interests do they serve and to what extent do they actually contribute to - or conversely undermine - the security of the peoples of this region? In addition, given that this other Europe is an important part of the larger ‘European supercomplex’, and in particular includes one of Europe’s major powers in Russia, what is the nature of the relationship between the NATO/EU security governance system and the other Europe? To what extent does a larger panEuropean system of security governance exist and what are the prospects for the development of relations at this European supercomplex level? This chapter addresses these questions. The first two sections examine the contested nature of the regions under consideration and the security agenda in the region. The following sections provide empirical analyses of security govern - ance in the other Europe, focusing on four distinct regions or sub-regions: the former Soviet Union space as a whole, Central Asia, the Black Sea region and the Balkans. The chapter concludes with a normative assessment of regional security governance in these regions.