ABSTRACT

During the Cold War Soviet political constraints limited the participation and interest in peacekeeping by the communist states of Central Europe. The end of the Cold War opened up the possibility of participation in peacekeeping by the former communist states of the region on a scale unimaginable during the period of Soviet hegemony. As the Lithuanian Foreign Minister emphasised in his address to the United Nation General Assembly, the peacekeeping units are an important statement of cooperation in the Central European region: Together with Estonia, Latvia, and with Poland, Lithuania is developing joint peacekeeping units. The security phenomenon of joint peacekeeping units is a distinctly Central and East European contribution to post-Cold War security developments in Europe. Western security organisations such as NATO and the (WEU) need to consider what kinds of link could best take advantage of this pool of peacekeeping assets. For NATO this might mean developing the Combined Joint Task Force(CJTF) concept in new directions.