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УДК: 327.7 ГРНТИ: 11.25.47 DOI: 10.32415/jscientia.2018.11.09
PROBLEMS AND WAYS OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANISATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EMERGING OF MODERN THREATS OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
K. I. Mozolev
Russian Customs Academy
21/50 Budennovsky Ave., 344002 Rostov-on-Don, Russia El Mozolev Kirill - [email protected]
The article discusses the main obstacles to the development of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the framework of increasing geopolitical instability. The main research tool is a comparative analysis of the CSTO with individual structures of the NATO, as well as an analysis of the potential capabilities and the actual state (effectiveness) of the CSTO. It was concluded that there are a number of problems, both political and organizational, that affect the effectiveness of regional security. The author proposed ways to solve the problems under consideration, divided into three groups: «Security at state borders», «Strategical communication and the image», and «International interaction».
Keywords: CSTO, NATO, international security, regional security, threats, military union.
ПРОБЛЕМЫ И ПУТИ РАЗВИТИЯ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ ДОГОВОРА О КОЛЛЕКТИВНОЙ БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ В КОНТЕКСТЕ ПОЯВЛЕНИЯ НОВЫХ УГРОЗ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЙ БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ
К. И. Мозолев
Российская таможенная академия
Россия, 344002 г. Ростов-на-Дону, Будёновский просп. 21/50 И Мозолев Кирилл Игоревич - [email protected]
В статье рассмотрены основные препятствия на пути развития Организации Договора о коллективной безопасности (ОДКБ) в рамках увеличения геополитической нестабильности. Основным инструментом исследования является сравнительный анализ ОДКБ с отдельными структурами НАТО, а также анализ потенциальных возможностей и фактического состояния (эффективности) ОДКБ. Был сделан вывод о наличии ряда проблем как политического, так и организационного характера, которые влияют на эффективность обеспечения региональной безопасности. Автором были предложены способы решения рассматриваемых проблем, разделенных на три группы: «пограничная безопасность», «стратегическая коммуникация и имидж», а также «международное взаимодействие».
Ключевые слова: ОДКБ, НАТО, международная безопасность, региональная безопасность, угрозы, военный союз.
Introduction. The increasing global threats such as international terrorism, cybercrime, illegal drug trade and etc. cause the need to establish and develop international entities which can solve actual problems. One of those entities leading by the USA - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - has become an effective mechanism of proving of the regional security inside the union, but at the same time an external threat for some non-NATO states. This fact pushes Russia as a leader of a post-Soviet bloc towards working on the intensifying of interaction in the sphere of international security between main geopolitical actors in the region. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was established for these purposes on the 15 may 1992 by six post-Soviet counties including Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
From the very beginning, it was considered as an opposition for the NATO. However, after the anticonstitutional coup in Kyrgyzstan in 2010, which the CSTO could not prevent, some essential problems of the CSTO were revealed. In the aftermath, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko expressed skepticism about the efficiency of the organization. Nowadays scholars consider the CSTO not as a real military and political union but a way of bilateral communication Russia and other members. Based on that, the main purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of the CSTO as a regional security
institute and to define perspectives of its development. In the article, the author uses comparative method and inductive reasoning.
Obstacles on the way of development. Every post-Soviet state was and is interested in the providing of the regional security. However, we can see differences in approaches and the shift of priorities. This is the core problem causing antagonism among the members. Now the Organization consists of six full members (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia) out of fifteenth former Soviet republics and even then it cannot be considered as a Russian attempt to reestablish the USSR model, so as the system of relationships is quite different from the Soviet directive one. It is worth to be noticed that the US have more influence on the NATO bloc, than Russia has in the CSTO.
From the Russian point of view, the CST treaty is way of keeping of the control over the region through the establishing of the block of non-NATO states around Russia. In this respect, we should mention that the treaty banned its signatories from joining other military alliances or regional groupings of states. Moreover, it obligated the signatories to regard an aggression against one CST member as an aggression against all members, requiring their rendering to the affected member all necessary types of supports to neutralize the aggressor what is the essential point in the treaty. [1]
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Nevertheless, the antagonism that was mentioned before is a consequence of different geopolitical strategies caused different political and economic abilities. The core issue is rather vivid and lies in the so-called credibility dimension. In the case of explicit aggression against a member of the CSTO, others will definitely compare their obligation to defend a partner and geopolitical expenses from such actions. For example, it is a well-known fact that Kazakhstan has strong political rapport with Azerbaijan as a Muslim country, and it is doubtfully that in the case of the escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as Artsakh), Kazakhstan will be stand for Armenia, despite of the CSTO obligations.
This is a key question within the framework of a discussion about the future of the CSTO, and it should be considered in a separated work because of its complexity. In the meanwhile, you can see that Russia is highly likely to take any measures for defending the countries of the former Eurasian Customs Union (EACU), which succeeded by the Eurasian Economic Union now, so as it is the inalienable geopolitical Russian interest. The Russian ambassador in Belarus Mikhail Babich confirmed it recently stating: «Moscow will consider any military attack on Belarus as an attack on Russia». [2] Speaking about Russian-Armenian relationships, we should remember about The Russian 102nd Military Base located in Gyumri, Armenia, and that the borders of Armenia with Turkey and Iran are protected by the Border Troops of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), what is the reason of Russian involvement in any military crisis in this country. However, that is not the rule for other actors in the CSTO.
Another important point is that the most of experts and scholars consider the CSTO as a military union, comparing with the NATO. From that point of view, the CSTO is not efficient, however, if the approach is changed, it will be assessed in different way. In this respect, it should be admitted that there would be higher level of geopolitical tension between the NATO and the CSTO, if the CSTO grew aggressively in the military aspect. Consequently, the development of the Organization is to be focused not only on military sphere, what can give some dynamics of it.
The crucial non-military problems for the CSTO are «international terrorism and extremism, the illicit traffic in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and arms, organized transnational crime, illegal migration...» as listed in Art. 8.1 of the CSTO charter. [3] In this context, the author would like to dwell on important points, considering that it is a very profound theme for widescale analyzing.
Firstly, there is a problem of providing national security on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, as this is a way of illegal drug trafficking and moving of terrorists from the Taliban. It becomes even more complex due to corruption and the mountain landscape stretching along the national border. In 2015, the commander of the border forces of Tajikistan Rajabali Rahmonali stated that more than 1500 terrorists including the members of the Taliban, Al-Qaida, the Islamic State, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Ansarulloh (Banned organization in Russia) gathered near the state Tajikistan border. [4] It shows the importance of the problem, which threatens the Russian and Kazakhstan national security.
Secondly, the Organization does not pay its attention on the problem of the image of it in the international perspective. Furthermore, only a few people within the territory of the CSTO know about it, and the majority knows about the NATO, what illustrates blunders in the public policy. This is the consequent
of the lack of the strategical communication with the civil society and humanitarian campaigns.
Considering such campaigns, it is well-known that the NATO has the widespread practice of humanitarian aid in many countries i.e. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Moldova, etc. [5] It helps to spread the positive image of the NATO and get it better. Speaking about military alliances in general, there are two aspects of that efficiency - the real capacity to defend its members and the understanding of the possibility of such measures. For the second one it is necessary to conduct set of campaigns (i.e. humanitarian aids, educational programs and civil meetings). Moreover, some 6,000 civilians work for NATO in different agencies and strategic and regional commands in comparison with 50 civil workers in the Secretary of the CSTO. Obviously, that is fewer even in proportional scale.
In addition, if you look through the official web-site (http:// www.odkb-csto.org/), you will be able to see inefficient presscenter, which does not provide underlying information. This problem impedes getting up-to-date and reliable facts about the activity of the CSTO, hence scholars cannot conduct actual research on it, control the way of development and just access the role of the Organization in international relations.
Thirdly, in the framework of the modern system of international relations every actor is to communicate with others in order to strengthen its role. In this respect, you see that there is certain level of interaction between the CSTO and international entities, but it includes only official meetings and some consultations with a limited range of organizations what is not enough. Moreover, the CSTO has never participated in even humanitarian missions outside the union compared with the NATO practice.
To overcome some problematic issues, it is necessary to develop cooperation at the level of individual programs towards a possible institutional and legal framework for the CSTO with international organizations, primarily the EU and NATO. Such programs, for example, include the anti-drug program of the European Commission «CADAP» and «Operation Channel» in the framework of the CSTO. Such an approach fits well with the concept of «network diplomacy» and «diplomacy of flexible alliances» promoted by Russia.
This direction was confirmed by the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaye, when he was asserted in 2014: «The organization is open for constructive interaction with other countries and international organizations. I hope that the decisions planned for adoption at the meeting will further strengthen cooperation between the CSTO member states in the field of security and increase the efficiency of activities». [6]
Ways of development. Based on what was said before, the Organization has some obstacles, which impede the development. In this respect, it is necessary to review ways, which are in the academic field, for overcoming them. It should be noticed that following suggestions were presented in the final resolution of the CSTO Model-conference (Republic of Armenia, Tsakhkadzor, August 17-21, 2018) with the involvement of the paper's author. In order to simplify the analysis it is necessary to create some groups, according to directions, and define essential points amid the recommendations.
1.Security at state borders
This is a very delicate question because it is always linked with national sovereignty. [6] In the meanwhile, there are some technical and organizational methods which can improve the process of providing this type of security:
a. To offer Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to install touch sensors on the Tajik-Afghan and Tajik-Kyrgyz borders in order to counter the movement of terrorist groups in the CSTO countries.
b.To implement the monitoring mission of the CSTO at the Tajik-Afghan border in order to improve the control mechanisms and prevent the entry of extremists and the spread of drug trafficking in the CSTO countries.
c. To exchange experience in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in various types of operations of the CSTO member countries.
2. Strategical communication and the image
For this purposes, it is important to engage specialists in the sphere of strategical communication what may have been realized by dint of some outsourcing consulting groups. There are some suggestions, which are necessary to implement in order to create positive, reliable and well-known image of the CSTO:
a. To develop concepts of public diplomacy within the CSTO.
b.To reorganize the CSTO press-center, create an information and image group.
c.To create platforms for specialists from the CSTO countries to harmonize expert assessments and ensure communication with specialized educational structures.
d.To improve the quality of the official web-site's work by creating actual content in English and state languages of the CSTO member countries, constantly updating information, systematizing the web-site's content and archive, and activating information policies in social networks.
3. International interaction
Within the framework of creation of trustworthy image of the CSTO inside and outside the region it is necessary to
REFERENCES
enlarge collaboration with different international actors linked with the providing international and regional security such as the OSCE. For this purposes, the Organization should reestablish The International Antiterrorism Media Forum with the assistance of variety of international organizations and experts from all state-members of the CSTO. It is noteworthy that it took place from 2004 to 2006, however its activity was suspended then by unknown reasons.
a. To consider the possibility of changing the status of a demining operation in Syria from national to collective under the auspices of the CSTO.
b.To provide a French-speaking contingent from Armenia to the CSTO peacekeeping forces to conduct peacekeeping missions within the framework of the UN in the French-speaking regions of Africa.
c. To develop CSTO cooperation with the OSCE in the field of conflict resolution.
Conclusion. Based on what was mentioned higher, it is obvious that the CSTO plays a considerable role in providing regional security. It is an important international entity within the framework of the system of international relations as well. It is necessary to confirm that there are a range of difficulties on the way of development, which can be solved by assistance of some think tanks and consulting groups. Obviously, experts from the CSTO do not pay needed attention on the promotion of the positive image, particularly, in international dimension. Any military union should develop both directions: military capacity and international image. Last but not least point is ongoing interaction between international entities what may be a possible factor of strengthen a position of the Organization.
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2. Бабич пообещал вмешательство России в случае нападения на Беларусь (Babich promised Russian intervention in the event of an attack on Belarus) // Российская газета (Rossiyskaya Gazeta). URL: https://rg.ru/2018/10/22/babich-poobeshchal-vmeshatelstvo-rossii-v-sluchae-napadeniia-na-belarus.html
3. Charter of the Collective Security Treaty Organization // President of Russia. URL: http://en.kremlin.ru/supplement/3506
4. Близ таджикско-афганской границы скопилось около 1,5 тыс. боевиков (Near the Tajik-Afghan border has accumulated about 1.5 thousand militants) // Media Group «ASIA-Plus». URL: https://news.tj/ru/news/bliz-tadzhiksko-afganskoi-granitsy-skopilos-okolo-15-tys-boevikov
5. Chapter 5: Logistic Support for Peace Support Operations // NATO Logistics Handbook. U RL: https://www.nato.int/docu/logi-en/1997/lo-505.htm
6. Назарбаев: ОДКБ открыта для взаимодействия с другими международными организациями (Nazarbayev: CSTO is open for interaction with other international organizations) // ТАСС (TASS). URL: https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/1667178
7. Kirill Golub, Yuri Golub Collective Security Treaty Organization: Origins of the Multidimensional Mandate and Modern Means for its Implementation // International Organisations Research Journal (IORJ), 2018. Vol. 13. No. 1. Pp. 193-203.
Received 01.11.2018
