With an important meeting of EU's foreign ministers taking place in Stockholm this weekend, David Stavrou examines the changing roles of Sweden and the EU in world affairs.
It was an October evening in the Karlskona archipelago when a local fisherman saw something unusual. He didn't know it at the time, but what he saw was about to cause a dramatic military and political standoff that would attract the world's attention and influence Swedish foreign policy for years to come. He phoned the Coast Guard and reported what he had seen, which turned out to be a submarine that ran aground not far from Karlskrona's town centre and naval base. To everyone's amazement, the vessel was a Whisky class submarine of the Soviet Union's Baltic fleet that had hit an underwater rock. The story would later be referred to as the 1981 "Whisky on the rocks" incident.
Recalling this incident now, as the EU's 27 Foreign Ministers are preparing to meet in Stockholm this weekend, is useful since it gives an important historical perspective to the event. After two devastating world wars and a long cold war, Europe is still looking for its role in the new world order. It is clearly a great economic power and a model of stability and prosperity. It is also a leader in many international issues like climate change. Still, when it comes to many of the world's security problems and international dilemmas, the EU seems either absent or lost. The US, Russia and China are more decisive and influential and many say that the Europeans are too divided and that they lose political power because their many states, institutions and organizations don't speak with one voice.
More --->
No comments:
Post a Comment