SUB-REGIONALISM IN THE NEWLY INDEPENDENT STATES

Since 1989, six new sub-regional cooperation groups have emerged as th e states of northern, central and eastern Europe work towards forging relationships with one another and their neighbours to east and west. Five of these groups are still in existence and have had considerable success in establishing cooperative relations in many areas outside th e realm of purely military security. The authors suggest that such sub -regional groups could provide useful model in the search for stabilit y among the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union. Ackno wledging and describing the ways in which this environment differs mar kedly from that of northern, central and eastern Europe, they point ou t the suitability of the model to the particular circumstances of the post-Soviet republics.