The Rise and Fall of Medvedev’s European Security Treaty

The European Security Treaty’s political longevity was even shorter than that of its author, now former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Vladimir Putin had decided to push a Eurasian Union instead that would have the opposite effect of the stated purpose of the European Security Treaty. European security debates had neglected Medvedev’s treaty initiative and tried to address Russian concerns within existing structures. And Russian diplomacy towards the Wider Europe seemed designed to avert further NATO membership enlargement, constraining NATO military ties with Georgia and other former Soviet republics, and disrupting NATO’s emerging missile defense architecture.