Western Europe, Universal Values, and the Activation of a "Comprehensive" Security System: Focusing on the Mediterranean Region in the -s

Key Chapter Title List

1. Security Issues in the Mediterranean
2. The Strategic Position of the Mediterranean in the Modern Era
3. Cold War Strategy and Universal Values: The Mediterranean as a Focal Point
4. The Mediterranean During the Turning Point of Western European Security
5. Political Change in the Mediterranean and the Manifestation of Universal Values
6. Destabilization and the Persistence of European Détente
7. Prerequisites for a "Comprehensive" Security System in the Mediterranean
8. The Strategic and Military Landscape of the Mediterranean in the 1970s-80s
9. The Mediterranean as a Focal Point for Alliance Management
10. The Convergence of Security and Universal Values: The Political Dynamics of a "Comprehensive" Security System
11. Western European Security and European Integration: Universal Values as a "Catalyst"
12. Alliance Cohesion and Universal Values: Tensions and Limitations

Document Introduction

This article aims to re-examine the transformation period of the Western European security system from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. At that time, fluctuations in European détente and the renewed intensification of East-West confrontation forced Western Europe to reposition its security agenda. The study points out that security concerns during this period had transcended purely military dimensions, becoming increasingly intertwined with political and economic agendas. The core driving force was the embedding of universal values such as freedom, democracy, and human rights into security strategies, thereby activating a "comprehensive" security system.

This research selects the Mediterranean as the core analytical region. During the Cold War, this area was both the "southern flank" and a potential vulnerability of NATO strategy, as well as a historic stage for great power rivalry. The successive collapse and democratic transitions of the authoritarian regimes in Greece, Portugal, and Spain in Southern Europe during the mid-1970s constituted a critical historical turning point. This series of political changes not only altered the regional balance of power but also elevated universal values from a previously "tacitly tolerated" secondary status due to Cold War strategic necessities to a core agenda for Western European multilateral policy coordination. The southern enlargement of the European Community (incorporating the aforementioned three countries) was not purely an economic consideration but a highly politicized "return to Europe" project. Its aim was to consolidate nascent democratic regimes through economic integration, thereby stabilizing NATO's southern flank and strengthening the overall Western European order.

By comprehensively utilizing archival documents from multiple countries and multilateral organizations, the article details the dual-level games surrounding the Mediterranean during this period. On one hand, at the military-strategic level, the land, sea, and air force confrontation between the US and USSR, and between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the region persisted. In particular, the expansion of the Soviet navy and issues concerning the credibility of US nuclear deterrence triggered profound concerns in Western Europe about "Finlandization" and its own structural dependency. On the other hand, at the level of alliance politics and integration, the Mediterranean became the intersection point for NATO alliance management and the deepening and enlargement of the European Community. Western European countries proposed cooperative agendas through the NATO framework and actively supported the democratization and stabilization of Mediterranean countries, viewing political freedom and economic stability as prerequisites for security.

The research ultimately reveals that from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, an active political interactive dynamic formed between NATO and the European Community. Security issues and political-economic challenges complemented each other, and common policy goals based ideologically on universal values were established. Despite inherent tensions (such as the ongoing conflict between Greece and Turkey, the fluctuations in Turkish democracy, etc.) and practical limitations, the discussion of these values acquired substantive and genuine content, shaping the characteristics of the European security system that continue to this day. Therefore, the Mediterranean experience marked a crucial convergence of Western Europe's power system, interest system, and value system, serving as a milestone for understanding the origins of the contemporary European comprehensive security order.