In front of the dominating church of Hallgrímur, in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, stands the statue of Leif Ericson. He is described as the “son of Iceland, discoverer of Vinland,” the Norse name for what would become North America. The inscription serves as a reminder of the island’s physical and symbolic position in the middle of the Atlantic.
For centuries we have used maps to delineate borders that have been defined by politics. But it may be time to chuck many of our notions about how humanity organizes itself. Across the world a resurgence of tribal ties is creating more complex global alliances. Where once diplomacy defined borders, now history, race, ethnicity, religion, and culture are dividing humanity into dynamic new groupings.
NATO New Strategic Concept should reply on a number of fundamental questions and global challenges. There are a few key directions which include stabilization of Afghanistan, involvement of Russia into mutually beneficial and mutually binding relations with Europe and extended North-Atlantic community, development of cooperation with non-governmental institutions, international organizations, cyber-threats struggling.
Integration of the energy market and a more dynamic cooperation of the Baltic countries in foreign and security policies would provide an additional impetus to the development of the Nordic-Baltic region, President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė underlined at the meeting with members of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The joint position of the members of the Visegrád Group V-4 promotes their weight and this should be considered within discussion of almost all big issues and problems. The list of big lately actualized European issues includes also Russian initiative on the European Security Treaty (EST), which is also called “Helsinki plus” in Moscow.
