NEBI YEARBOOK 1999

Thorvald Stoltenberg Ambassador Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board A.5 the second volume of the this yearbook goes to press, Europe faces new and to some degree unexpected dangers of political and ideological division. It is a frightening realisation that not even ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Empire and the democratisation and economic transformation of most of the old Soviet-dominated Central and Eastern Europe, fissures have appeared that threaten to undo some of what has been accomplished in terms of East-West rapprochement. The immediate crisis over Kosovo may well have been resolved by the time this is being read. However, it is hard to escape a foreboding that some of the mutual ill will between Russia and the Western powers that has surfaced in the wake of that conflict may linger for years to come. It is therefore imperative that Russia and the Western powers sit down to discuss what can be done to avoid similar conflicts in the future and how to overcome mutual recriminations so that they do not harden into new political front lines between East and West in Europe. The recent developments make the promotion of integration in the NEBI area even more urgent. So far this process has been based on two equally impor­ tant platforms: economic integration and political integration, including mea­ sures to dismantle old conflict potentials.