The Russian approach culminating in a violation of the basic norms and principles of the OSCE through the annexation of Crimea and military action in Eastern Ukraine has hampered the full-scale functioning of the organisation and challenged its future role. Added to this, the political development of Russia has led to a questioning of the concept of comprehensive security enshrined in the OSCE’s key values and principles and, in particular, its human dimension.
Reflecting the general weakening of cooperative security in Europe, the arms control regime has also started to fall apart. As a result of this development, all three pillars of European arms control – the Treaty on Conventional Arms in Europe (CFE Treaty), the Vienna Document on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures (VD 2011) and the Open Skies Treaty have either become outdated or been abandoned. Even though Finland and Sweden do not take part in the CFE Treaty, they have still been working actively within the framework of the Vienna Document. The inactivation of this system of norms and confidence-building measures has increased distrust.
As a consequence of a deepening distrust between Russia and the West (and with it the weakened legitimacy of the structures of cooperative security), political confrontation and military tension have increased. With the growing risk of military accidents and the escalation of military activities, the security of countries such as Finland located in the immediate vicinity of Russian strategic regions is becoming vulnerable.
Cooperative security. NATO’s transformation in the 1990s broadened its tasks from collective defence to crisis management and cooperation with third countries. In this context, NATO changed its threat conceptions and engaged in a special relationship with Russia. The Partnership for Peace (PfP) concept was launched in 1994 as a platform between NATO and non-member states to adjust cooperation to the very different starting levels of partner countries in terms of military capabilities. Finland joined at its creation and has also been a full ab initio participant in the PfP’s planning and review process (PARP) from 1995 onwards.
Since the early years of cooperative security, 12 partners have become full members of NATO and currently the organisation’s more than 40 partners cover regions from North Africa and the Middle East to Asia. In the organisation’s 13-year-long operation in Afghanistan, which was the largest and longest NATO operation ever, 22 partner countries took part.
