KSZE – no pious wish

Political changes require far -sighted politicians who take the chances of a political reversal, «one reads at the beginning of the book to be displayed here. In fact, that applies to all times, then as now. Back then, in the mid -1970s, politicians, in East and West, proved political reason. A cold war raged between the blocks that represented two contrary social systems. The world balanced more than once on the abyss of a new, third World War, even a nuclear confrontation. Cuba crisis, deputy wars in Asia and Africa, a dizzying high-shot upgrade spiral … and then Helsinki, the hopeful year 1975.

What hardly anyone knows today or pronounces: the initiative came from the “Eastern Bloc”. On July 5, 1966, the States of the Warsaw Treaty, the real socialist counterpart to NATO, proposed a “conference on questions of European security” at their meeting. The proposal was supported by the representatives of Communist and Labor Parties in Europe in the Czech Karlsbad from April 24th to April 26, 1967. The invasion of the Warsaw contracting states on 20/21. August 1968 in Czechoslovakia, the violent suppression of the “Prague Spring”, then left doubts about the initiative of the East.

In the meantime, however, the crowd of politicians interested in relaxation had grown in the West. On April 11, 1969, representatives of the NATO countries in Washington signaled willingness to negotiate. And on May 9, the Finnish government offered to hold a preparatory meeting in Helsinki.

In order for a civilized world order to be possible, the interests of those states and peoples are recognized that subsumes for far too long as a “third world” and how undermated children were treated.

This highly up -to -date book was published in good time before the 40th anniversary of the final acts of the conference on security and cooperation in Europe (KSZE) in Helsinki. It should not be surprised that the historian Peter Brandt, the eldest son of the first social democratic chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, will not be surprised. Co-editor are the East German political scientist Dieter Segert and the long-time SPD member of the Bundestag Gert Weisskirchen.

The authorship is mixed, voices from east such as West, people with scientific merits and political experiences have their say here, including civil rights activists. Because the latter in particular also had their share in social changes in the last third of the 20th century on both sides of the “iron curtain”.

The publisher emphasize the story several times. And that means that political action is particularly important. The Helsinki conference in 1975 marked the beginning for the change in the Soviet area, which in 1989 found its symbolic highlight with the fall of the Berlin Wall. But one could also formulate: With the upheavals in Eastern Europe and the decay of the Soviet Union, the KSZE found an unfortunate, abusal end. The organization for security and cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which was emerging from this emerged, that entered the international stage on January 1, 1995, is now only a shadow of itself.

Peter Brandt, Dieter Segert and Gert Weisskirchen speak of a “double breach of history”: “The one, the end of authoritarian state socialism, was accompanied by the end of the east-west confrontation. It was associated with the hope of a peaceful world. The other, the slow crumbling and the destruction of the foundations of this order common security already laid, led into the deep crisis in global political relationships that we are facing today. «

It is the great merit of this book not only to look back, but also to analyze the present and to venture out views, to outline possible ways out. Probably also in order to prevent unjustified assumptions, the editors pronounce that the current global political crisis “not only the result of actors from actors from Eastern and Western Europe” is, although they are not only rooted in the search for the Russian elite after securing their rule according to the catastrophic 1990s. “

The origins of the current global crisis also locate them in the vibrations of the international financial world in 2008 and in the now serious »changed balance of power between the old world power USA and the rising world power of China. Against this background, the principles of relaxation lost relevance, and geopolitics, the striving for large and medium powers after securing their spheres of influence, gained weight again. «

Today, it is not only “the two major conflicts war in Ukraine and in Middle East, which rightly worry us,” warn the editors and mention the many other challenges that humanity is facing today: a ball of crises and conflicts, including climate change and again insane armaments, which is dealt with in more detail in the contributions of the knowledgeable authors.

Peter Brandt, Dieter Segert and Gert Weisskirchen name the alternative with which we are confronted today: »Either a world of increasing position fights of old and new great powers, between the› West ‹and rising states of the› global south ‹, which contains the risk of a last confrontation (a› third world war ‹) In view of the dangers, finding the way into a new, civilized, fairer world order and to take vigorously. «

In order for the latter to be possible, the interests of those states and peoples that were not taken into account for far too long are subsumed by the West as “developing countries” or “Third World”, how underage children were treated. “It would also be important for a new European security order that China as a state whose interests and power go into European space will be included in the negotiations of a Helsinki 2.0 agreement,” the editors confirm. “In any case, the future European security architecture will have to be embedded in a multilateral, rule -based world order.”

It is also an important task to modernize the UN to adapt its structure of today’s geopolitical world map, which is completely changed 80 years after the end of the Second World War. Peter Brandt, Dieter Segert and Gert Weisskirchen are not afraid to articulate the bold hope: »In the best case, an order could arise in which regional military alliances will be superfluous. That would accelerate the skills to cope with the serious problems of this planet, which is existentially. ”Your wish may find receipt, no, not only in» God’s ear «, but in the ears of all politicians in the world, into the minds of all people. This is not a pious wish.

Peter Brandt/Dieter Segert/Gert Weisskirchen (ed.): Double history break. The change in Eastern Europe after the Helsinki conference in 1975 and the future of European security. J. H. W. Dietz, 576 pages, born, € 38.
Event tip: ND-Hofkino, “The Helsinki effect”, documentary by Arthur Franck; In advance with Karin Schüttpelz (Policy Adviser for Foreign and Security Policy) and Walter Baier (European Left), Moderation: Uwe Sattler, August 1, from 3 p.m., Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243 Berlin.