A NEW ROUND

The international security conference that has been held in Munich annually for half a century traditionally compels the attention of politicians and political scientists. This is natural since such events with the participation of top figures from the leading states of the world discuss the most pressing issues and challenges of international security. Given the prestigious composition of the member states' delegations, it is no surprise that world leaders frequently use the Munich forum as a convenient format to openly and frankly set out their views on various problems of global security. Suffice it to recall Russian President Vladimir Putin's speech at the 43rd Munich Conference in 2007 that became widely known as his "Munich speech". The Russian leader's explicit accusation of the USA of trying to establish a unipolar world and deal single-handedly with matters of purely American concern had a great impact on society. Some political scientists even dubbed those statements as the start of a "new cold war". 

The 50th anniversary security conference was held in the Bavarian capital from 31 January till 2 February. The forum brought together more than 20 heads of states and governments as well as 60-plus ministers of foreign affairs and defence. Among the participants were UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, European Council head Herman Van Rompuy, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry - virtually the entire global diplomatic elite. 

However, many participants of the anniversary event were not in a mood to celebrate: the agenda of discussions was too serious. Fifteen panel discussions and about 250 bilateral meetings took place on the sidelines of the forum. The discussions focused on matters of strengthening security in the Euro-Atlantic region, developing Russia-EU and Russia-NATO mutual relations, the crisis in Ukraine, cyberspace regulation, the situation around Syria and in the Middle East, the Iranian nuclear programme and the impact of the financial crisis on global security and stability. 

It was initially supposed that Syria would top the agenda. Yet the latest period has seen some progress towards resolving the crisis situation in that country. The same can be said about another long-standing problem - the Iranian nuclear programme. The new leadership of that country is demonstrating readiness to smooth tensions by taking practical steps towards dialogue with the West to ease international sanctions. 

The discussion on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict proved to be somewhat tense. If Israel fails to conclude a peace agreement with the Palestinians it would face an economic boycott, US Secretary of State John Kerry said at the conference. His words evoked criticism from Israeli Minister of Economy Naftali Bennett. "We expect our friends in the world to stand by our side against anti-Semitic boycott efforts against Israel, and not be their trumpet," N.Bennett said. Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon had slammed a plan proposed by the US secretary of state to establish security arrangements in the Jordan Valley. "It contains no peace and no security," the minister said. According to M.Ya'alon, J.Kerry's plan "is not worth the paper it's written on". Later the Israeli defence minister apologised for his words. 

Alongside this, the Munich forum participants certainly could not ignore the rapidly increasing pace of developments in Ukraine. As a result, the topic of Ukraine, being absent from the Munich forum's tentative agenda, nearly turned into the main issue of discussions. 

In general, the Munich conference has demonstrated that there are fundamental differences of opinion between the West and Russia on most issues included in the agenda. The stakeholders' positions on longer crises such as, for instance, the Palestinian-Israeli, Syrian and Iranian ones were known and the outcome of the discussions was generally predictable. As for Ukraine, the difference in views on this subject has reaffirmed the judgement that it is premature to talk about the Cold War between the West and Russia as finished. Despite the broad agenda, it was clear that the West could not avoid uneasy discussions in a confrontational vein with Russia's delegation lead by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The debaters split into two groups. A large group of Western representatives accused Moscow of trying to "stifle" the Ukrainian people's European bid. In return, Russia rebuked the West and its individual politicians of gross interference in Ukraine's internal affairs and outright encouragement of violent anti-government actions. The parties' bitter debates as if returned the conference participants to the time when Putin had made his above said landmark speech seven years before. They showed that the confrontation between the West and Russia had not abated over the years elapsed but waited for an opportunity to openly manifest itself. The Kremlin made it clear that it would not tolerate attempts by the West to take every advantage of the current developments in Ukraine to reorient that country located at Russia's eastern borders and within Moscow's zone of direct interests. 

One more aspect of the Munich conference could be viewed as symptomatic. Speeches by the top figures of this prestigious forum's host country have shown that the "unipolar world" the dangers of which V.Putin spoke about there in Munich in 2007 has become unfit also for some of the United States' allies in Europe. At the Munich conference opening ceremony, German President Joachim Gauck spoke about Germany's new role in the world.  "And it is precisely at times when the United States cannot keep on providing more and more that Germany and its European partners must themselves assume greater responsibility for their security," Gauck said. Given the EU member states' growing discontent with the US ambition to deal with various problems on the European continent as it sees fit, one could suppose that, in his veiled criticism of the USA, the German president was speaking not only on behalf of his country but also expressing the general sentiments that one can see in united Europe today. 

Beyond doubt, such sentiments will gain even more strength following the online publication the other day of a recorded telephone conversation between two people whose voices are ascribed to high ranking US diplomats: Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. During the talk, a woman with a voice closely resembling that of V.Nuland was pulling no punches speaking about the EU's actions (or rather inaction, according to the conversation partners) in dealing with the political crisis in Ukraine. "F*** the EU", the female voice says on the record. In addition, the partners were not too complimentary in speaking about Ukraine's opposition leaders, in particular, Vitaliy Klitschko. The male voice expresses his opinion about the famous boxer as a man not experienced enough to hold a high state post. Nuland also says that Klitschko should not have a position in government. Later Nuland apologised for her uncomplimentary words about the EU. 

It is unknown if it will be possible to identify those involved in recording and publishing this confidential conversation. According to data from US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki, the record was first published from the Twitter account of Dmitriy Loskutov, the aide of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitriy Rogozin. It is clear already now that this story will add no authority to the USA in the European Union and, naturally, in Ukraine itself. At the same time, it will strengthen the positions of Russia seeking to knock together a coalition against US hegemony in Eastern Europe. In any event, it can be asserted that the world is going through the beginning of a new stage of the Cold War. The war is gathering momentum which can also be seen from the vigorous mudslinging campaign launched in western - mostly US - media against the Winter Olympics started in Sochi.

REFERENCE

The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference held in Munich (Germany) since 1962. Until 1993, it was referred to as a conference on military issues and conducted under the auspices of the Christian Social Union. Since 1998, it has been funded by the German government. 

German publisher Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin was the conference founder, permanent organizer and leader until 1998. From 1999, this part was played by Horst Teltschik, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's former adviser on foreign and defence issues and by Wolfgang Ischinger since 2009. 

During the first 30 years of the forum, its participants were military and political leaders of NATO member states, political analysts and media representatives. Since the 1990s, the conference has been attended by representatives of Russia and other Eastern European countries (since 1995), China, India and Japan.