The European security

• Author: Cret Vasile - Pantea Madalina
• Pages: 46-55

THE EUROPEAN SECURITY

Ph. D. Lecturer Vasile CreŃ

Assistant lecturer Mădălina Pantea

Abstract: Practice and theory of force went hand in hand, defining the history of Europe up to

now. The effort to organize forces to discourage aggression and resistance focused on two main

directions: on one hand, the domestic resource mobilization, and on the other hand, the conclusion

of agreements with other states to coordinate the defense against third countries.

Key words: security, UN Charter, relation, states, peace.

1. The balance of power policy

Security concerns have always been related to force and provide the means and conditions

necessary to prevent and reject aggression.

Practice and theory of force went hand in hand, defining the history of Europe up to now. The

father of the international law, Hugo Gratius, significantly naming its treaty of interstate relations

norms, in 1625, De Jure beli ad pacis (On the right of war and peace).

The effort to organize forces to discourage aggression and resistance against it focused on two

main directions: on one hand, the domestic resource mobilization, and on the other hand, the

conclusion of agreements with other states to coordinate the defense against third countries.

1

The emergence of balance of power paradigm is dated with the use of force, so that De Hume

noted in his essay The balance of power, appeared in 1752, that elements of this principle can be

found in Demosthenes orations for megalopolithans and got extension after the formation of the

modern states.

a) One of the oldest plans in this regard is that of Maximilian Bethune, the duke of Sully, when

he was minister of the king Henrich IV of France. One of these plans foresaw Europe’s division into

"15 equal states" managed by France.

b) Another point was the idea of forming systems for the conflict solving through arbitration

and conciliation as a way of maintaining the balance of powers. The idea emerged at the beginning

of the 2nd millennium and was based on the Christian ideas of the world university. As for the

arbitrator, the controversy was between the followers of the Pope and those of the Emperor, and

they continued until the assertion of the national principle.

Later on, another idea appeared, that of the creation of some European institutions to keep the

peace. The idea was repeated in 1464 by a certain Antonie Marini, a French refugee at the court of

Podiebrad, King of Bohemia, and it became "Podiebard's plan" which provided a "Congregation of

Concordia", a sort of league of the sovereigns representatives for peace by arbitration.

c) Another way to keep the peace was the creation of alliances to maintain the balance, which

was adopted in the fifteenth century Italy and then expanded across Europe. This system was

intended to limit the two great dangers that threatened the sovereignty of the states: the extension of

the Ottoman domination and increased power of the Habsburgs. Thus, to cope with the invasion of

France in Italy, the King of Spain, the Pope, Venice, Milan and Emperor Maximilian I joined on

March 24th in the League of Venice.

1.1. European congresses, ways of promoting the balance of power

The European Congresses were a new way to promote the balance of power in Europe.

a) The system of Westphalia was created as a result of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648)

between the Protestant princes supported by the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, France and the

Habsburgs.

1

Boncu Simion, European Security. Changes, Challenges and Solutions, Amco Press Publishing House, Bucharest,

1999