"The rational organization, at the global level, of human
existence...is clearly an absolute necessity." --Eduard Shevardnadze, 1992
There are moments when the swirling mists in which modern European
political speech seems deliberately to envelop itself are dissipated
by sudden, perhaps unintended, flashes of linguistic clarity. Two
remarks made in 1994 have illuminated, if only in silhouette, the
broad outlines of current European geopolitics and political culture.
The first came in May, when Boris Yeltsin paid a state visit to
Germany. The theme of his visit was the entry of Russia into all
European organizations, ultimately including NATO and the European
Union. As a priority, though, Yeltsin concentrated on a theme dear to
the Russian heart, the strengthening of the Conference on Security
and Cooperation in Europe, to which Moscow would like NATO to be
subordinate. The Russian president declared to an eager
audience--using words that would have been music to the ears of the
former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, as well as to many
contemporary politicians--that he wanted a "politically, economically
and spiritually unified architecture for our continent, which must
not isolate countries or groups of countries or separate them
according to the criteria of friend or enemy..."[emphasis added].
