Europe and America- Similarities and Differences in Security Structures

Description

In the present, many nations are struggling against the consequences of the global financial and economic crisis, which seriously changed the attitude and shifted the policies of many nations from a global to a domestic level in order to protect their economies. On the other hand, the globalized world economy has become a network of cooperation and multilateralism, which only leaves limited agility to its players, as they are deeply connected to each other.

Global security structures should not be interpreted as the plain military capacity of a nation or of an alliance of states, but as the combination of political, economic and social factors that allow this very security structures to exist and further develop.

The new millennium has brought new challenges on a global scale: The EU has to deal with the back draft of its three last expansion rounds as well as its position in world politics; the US have tried to repair the damage done by the Bush administration in terms of domestic economic downturn and foreign policy deficits (respectively, by working on the stimulus during Obama’s government and foreign policies oriented towards peace and cooperation, but never passiveness); and the OAS has found itself over decades to be an organization with a very limited effect and insufficient significance in the Americas.

This article will address all these issues, looking into the past of the different nations conforming the mentioned blocks to try to explain their development and find the historical reasons for the present challenges the world faces today.