European Security and Cooperation: A Skeptical Contribution

The article discusses European security and co operation under the headings used under the name of 'baskets' in Geneva: security, co-opera tion and free flow of persons and ideas. As to security: the argument is that no arms race can be understood without an analysis of the under lying conflict formation, and that the East-West conflict formation for most practical purposes has withered away. It was about hegemony over Eastern Europe, which was transferred from the western powers to the Soviet Union after the Second World War, but the West has gotten accustomed to this because (1) there is a shift of generations and (2) under the heading of 'co operation' western capitalism has once more been permitted to penetrate into Eastern Europe. As to co-operation: this pattern of trade and co-opera tion is analyzed and seen as highly asymmetric and essentially compatible with the interests of Western capitalism: export of capital and tech nology, import of raw materials and to some ex tent (from Yugoslavia) raw labor. Reasons for this pattern are to be found in some fallacies in marxist thinking, not only in the ways this think ing is put into practice in Eastern Europe. As to free flow of persons and ideas: the article argues that this will be very difficult for Eastern Eu ropean countries to agree to, because it would destroy the important reward of being permitted to travel to the West by making travel too easy. Moreover, the socialist countries would be afraid of massive criticism from their leftist youth, and this would also work against the interests of elites in the capitalist countries by threatening the present pattern of co-operation. As a conclusion, it is pointed out that the present pattern of co operation should be changed, and that the posi tive sign in the present development is that Eu ropean detente now has come so far that it should be possible to discuss the type of problems men tioned in the present article in a rational manner for the benefit of both East and West and the developing countries.