Civil Society Watch

The political world has been changing radically since the Central European revolution of 1989. Instead of traditional bi-polar conflict, we now have the potential for multi-polar political conflict. Small wars have once again become a real possibility. Ethnic and social conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe are brewing into equally revolutionary and explosive mixtures. Despite these changes, however, Western Europe's political classes are still sitting impassively at yesterday's gambling tables, placing their bets as though oblivious of the fact that "Rouge" and "Noir" have become almost indistinguishable after the historic downpour. They mutter strange codes under their breath ( CSCE, CFE, EC, WEU, NATO, etc.), but can we be sure that these letters still stand for the same concepts that they did three years ago?