Dall'unificazione tedesca alla guerra in Kosovo: UN'analisi dell'impatto della leadership statunitense sul sistema di sicurezza euroatlantico.

The collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) ended the threat of a large-scale conflict between the two superpowers and their allies, letting the West and especially the United States (US), as the main international actor. Despite conflicting views, many scholars agree that the 90s constitute the period of major power of the US. With no major enemy left, the US remain unchallenged in all domains of power: economically, culturally, technologically and militarily. This new international configuration emerging from the ashes of the Cold War has been defined, using the words of President George W. Bush: “a New Global Order”. The aim of this work is to look at the features of this New Order, especially for what concerns the security reform which took place in the 1990s. Which are the main security challenges of this decade? This question only catches a part of the issue. What really matters, is the evolving nature of these challenges and the way the international community and, more precisely, the Euro-Atlantic one, has adapted itself to deal with them. To put it differently, how have the challenges of the post-Cold war period influenced the Euro-Atlantic security reform? In a world made smaller by globalization and no longer tied to the bipolar dynamics, the notion of security starts to change. Widely regarded as the main focus of the geopolitical discourse, security has been traditionally understood in terms of national military defence. With the new global order, the security concept is evolving, being now linked not to the threat of a major inter-state conflict, but rather to issues such as the political and economic transitions towards democracy of the ex-eastern bloc countries, the re-emergence of nationalistic attitudes in Europe’s periphery, the persistence and relevance of international institutions and alliances. Moreover, as a consequence of the international crisis happening in this decade, two new interconnected dimensions acquire an increased relevance. On one hand, a higher emphasis is put on the international law and on the legality of foreign intervention; on the other, the vary basis of international law are starting to be challenged. Regardless of national belonging, the focus of the security discourse shifts from the state to the individual, putting into question the notion of sovereignty. While the practices of international behaviour are changing, the renewed role of the US and the integration process in the European Economic Community, soon becoming the European Union (EU), are the two main forces driving the security reform. The new order came with the necessity for Europe and the US, the two main global actors left, to reframe their relationship and adopt new instruments to deal with the new security challenges, with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at the core of the process.