WHY VALUES MATTER IN THE GLOBAL STRUGGLE FOR POWER. KEY IMPLICATIONS FOR EURO-ATLANTIC SECURITY

Abstract

International environment becomes increasingly competitive and conflict prone. The present paper argues that political values subsumed to liberal democracy are an important component of the current global struggle for power and its purpose is to emphasize and argue the major importance of value-based cohesion for Euro-Atlantic actors, as well as the main challenges in this respect. In order to do so, the analysis is framed within the theories of power transition and security community as, together, they reflect both the manner in which values can act as a motivation for conflict and their function as a bond making the members of a security community able to pursue their interest in a conflicting international environment.