National Minorities in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and the Post-Cold War European Security System

这一研究项目明确说明了东欧和巴尔干地区少数民族问题出现的原因和方式，以及欧洲国际社会如何处理这一问题。本研究的主要成果如下：1. “大国之间”等地缘政治因素是造成该地区少数民族问题的重要原因之一。2. 更具体地说，第一次世界大战后划定的领土边界与该地区实际的民族语言分布之间的差异造成了该地区的少数民族问题。3. 国际联盟的少数民族保障制度是在第一次世界大战后为了解决严重的少数民族问题而建立的，但主权原则和脆弱的凡尔赛体系使其未能履行自己的责任。4. 那里的少数民族问题在冷战结束后再次出现，但所有这些问题都没有象波罗的海和中欧的俄罗斯和匈牙利少数民族问题那样有发生军事冲突的危险。5. 冷战后的欧洲安全体系是通过围绕前南斯拉夫民族冲突的欧洲国际政治而形成的，它对欧洲的相对稳定做出了贡献。该系统具有五个特点：(1)将少数民族问题视为欧洲重大安全问题的价值，以及“领土完整”和“尊重少数民族权利”的整体原则；(2)由欧安组织、欧洲理事会、欧盟和北约组成的互补性欧洲安全体系的制度化；(3)东欧国家加入欧盟和北约的条件性影响；(4)“人道主义干预”概念的引入和北约的实施；(5)欧洲国际组织对冲突后重建的国际合作体系。

This research project made it clear why and how the national minority problems appeared in the Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and how the European international community has tackled with this issue. The main results of this research are as follows. 1. The geopolitical element such as "between the powers" was one of the most influential reasons, which caused national minority issues in this region. 2. More concretely, the discrepancy between the territorial borderlines drawn after the First World War and real ethno-linguistic distribution in this region caused problems of national minority there. 3. The League of Nations System of minority guarantees was founded after the First World War in order to resolve the serious national minority issues, but the principle of sovereignty and the fragile Versailles system made it fail to accomplish its own responsibilities. 4. National minority issues there reappeared after the end of the Cold War, but all of them did not risk military conflicts like the cases of the Russian and the Hungarian minority issues in the Baltic and Central Europe respectively. 5. The post-Cold War European security system was created through the European international politics around the ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, and it contributed to the relative stability in Europe. This system has five characteristics: (1) the value, which considers national minority issues as an European significant security matter, and integral principle of "territorial integrity" and "respects for national minority rights" (2) institutionalization of mutual complimentary European security system composed of OSCE, Council of Europe, EU and NATO, (3) the effects of conditionality on the East European states for their accession to the EU and the NATO, (4) introduction of the concept of 'humanitarian intervention' and the enforcement by the NATO, (5) international cooperation system of the European international organizations for the post-conflict reconstruction.