Does Russia Still Have a Cold War Mindset? - Carl Bildt November 18, 2009

Favorite:

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/03/20/20_Years_After_the_Fall_of_the_Iron_Curtain

Carl Bildt, Former Prime Minister of Sweden and current Minister of Foreign Affairs, examines relations between Europe and Russia 20 years after the end of the Cold War. Bildt compares the evolution of Russia to that of Germany after World War II.

-----

Twenty years have passed since the collapse of communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The epochal changes that led to the largely peaceful end of the Cold War also opened the door for the unification of Germany. At the same time, it anchored Central and Eastern Europe -- from the Baltic to the Black Sea -- to the West in the EU and NATO. While the challenge of integrating and anchoring the Balkans remains incomplete, the historic accomplishment and step toward the vision of a Europe whole, free, and at peace is widely seen as a tremendous success story.

At the same time, there are major questions as we look toward the future. The stability, resilience, and solidarity of a unified Europe is being tested in the current economic and financial crisis. Central and Eastern Europe is looking for strategic reassurance from a resurgent Russia. Western liberal democracy is no longer necessarily seen as the only option in countries on the periphery of Europe and Eurasia.

Is there a new historical and strategic narrative to again mobilize the West to reach out to and embrace countries like Ukraine and Georgia -- or has the window of opportunity for enlargement closed? Above all, how do we deal with a Russia that today seems further from the West in terms of values and seems determined to roll back democratic breakthrough on its periphery but whose support we need on a range of issues from energy to Iran to Afghanistan? - German Marshall Fund

Former Prime Minister of Sweden and current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt was appointed as the European Union Special Representative to the former Yugoslavia and served as co-chairman of the 1995 Dayton Peace Talks.

Additionally, he has served as the first High Representative of the international community in Bosnia during 1996 and 1997. In 1999, he was asked to re-engage on the Balkan issues as special envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and served in that capacity until 2001.