ENG
Year 2015
20th International Conference of the Baltic Forum
The US, the EU and Russia - the new reality
September 12, 2015, Baltic Beach Hotel, Jurmala, Latvia
Since the last international conference of “The Baltic Forum” in May 2014, the situation in the world has continued to change rapidly. During the last quarter of a century contradictions accumulated between the West and Russia have resulted in a full-fledged crisis, of which the most expressed manifestation became the slaughterous armed collisions in the East of Ukraine. All this certainly has encumbered security issues, both on regional and global level.
The tension of the recent years, associated with the gradual descent of the “unipolar” world order, has been accompanied by:
- Compelling growth of China's economic and military potential, and the associated intensification of competition between the United States and the People's Republic of China;
- Radicalisation of the Islamic world, progressing Middle East destabilization;
- Economic and political stagnation of Europe;
- Gradual decrease of the role of the supranational institutions established by the former world leaders and the “Great West”.
The existing political and military structures can no longer easily extinguish the recently emerging challenges to regional and global security system. Specific steps in foreign policy undertaken by the leaders of the major international organizations and the most prominent countries are often either belated or do not prove sufficiently decisive, or even more dangerously - are based from the outset on erroneous messages or conclusions.
The price of such an unseen incompetence can be enormous. The most vivid example is the East of Ukraine, where even according to the most moderate estimates thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed or injured, whereas the amount of refugees is approaching one and a half million.