A Bitter New Europe: Still Afraid of Its Own Shadow?

More than ten years since their accession into NATO and five years since becoming members of the European Union, Central and East European (CEE) countries still remain in the grips of their pathological sense of insecurity. Since September 2009 when President Obama made a daring move to scrap his predecessor’s plans to build missile defense installations in the Czech Republic and Poland, barrages of criticism have been heaped on the new US administration for forsaking the region. The missile defense controversy has reminded us of chronic anxieties, which still lurk in the minds of some of the prominent thinkers and politicians in former communist countries in Europe.

Voices of prominent politicians of the 1990s generation in the region resurface to warn us, but perhaps more specifically the Western audience, about the fleeting fortunes of the new democracies as if they still faced internal and external challenges of great magnitude. An outcry from conservative politicians and pundits about Obama’s purported lack of commitment to new democracies in Europe has been gaining momentum recently

We have to object to such an assessment as we believe it not only misrepresents the situation on the ground but also, and more importantly, it inevitably hurts vital long-term interests of the countries in the region, the Czech Republic not excluded. This phenomenon of grueling insecurities in part stems from their recent historical experience. Nevertheless, events of the past should not obscure the fact that countries of Central and East Europe have experienced a profound transformation over the last decade. Today the region is a far cry from the gray zone of instability, which emerged from the ashes of the Cold War in the early 1990s.

When the Iron Curtain finally crumbled in 1989 and the East European communist regimes were dismantled, new democracies were indeed at the crossroads with the uncertain future ahead of them. As if the momentous task of copying with the communist legacy in all spheres of political and economic life was not enough, these countries had to dread possible spread of armed conflicts from the Balkans and the post-Soviet space. The West also watched the developments with slight trepidation. The Western leaders were afraid that the new democracies may be subsumed in their own internal and external crises. The newly elected post-communist governments recognized that the only way to consolidate their young democracies was to pursue vigorous integration into Western Europe. Symbolically speaking, this turn to the West was also seen as putting an end to the post-Yalta division of Europe once and for all.

In their effort to join the Western institutions, the most prominent of them the EU and NATO, the CEE countries undertook a pledge to carry out a wide range of reforms. Struggling to reach for the most coveted prize of membership in the Western club has helped instill a sense of greater responsibility and accountability in the minds of government officials from the candidate countries. As a result, at the time of writing this piece these countries show a remarkable deal of political and economic vitality. Granted, one can see some disconcerting trends here and there but no one of sane mind would suggest that the clock can be turned back to undo the achievements of the vigorous democracy building of the last decade. Despite some of the local idiosyncrasies, the region remains firmly embedded in Europe. The intentional inflating of real or imaginary challenges and threats unique to the region is a very dangerous path to embark on.

There is no question that the CEE countries should strive to cultivate their relationship with Washington as does the EU as a whole. Yet, one can hardly expect the American leaders with their global foreign policy outlook not to lose patience, sooner rather than later, with the CEE countries still bitter about the shift in Washington’s priorities.

Having been firmly anchored in the Western institutions for the last decade, it is a high time CEE countries made the vocation of becoming a force for a change. They need to take initiative to become both responsible shareholders in Europe and reliable partners for the US. Incidentally, we can achieve the latter only through accomplishing the former first. Therefore, the countries of the region should now work extra hard to strengthen the European Union in order to endow it with a more coherent voice in world affairs. To many it came as little surprise when President Obama cancelled his meeting with new EU President Van Rompuy planned for May. This was in many ways largely due to the fact that the Union has hard time to take full advantage of its political and economic weight. Yet at the same time, for Washington a stronger EU, rather than current cacophony of disparate foreign policy voices, would become a more equal partner in addressing global issues. To help attain this goal, new member states have a role to play and need to make most of their EU membership. A more unified Europe is also going to placate the alarmists in the CEE region by not only providing additional security guarantees but also ensure a more durable and realistic commitment from Washington to cooperation with Brussels as a respected partner with whom the US can do business.