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Western Democracy Under Threat, Security Conference Warns

Henry Ridgwell

   MUNICH - The annual Munich Security Conference got underway Friday,
   with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier issuing a warning that
   Russia, China and the United States were endangering global security.

   "Russia '¦ has made military force and the violent shifting of borders
   on the European continent the means of politics once again," Steinmeier
   told the audience of leaders, military chiefs and diplomats at the
   Bayerischer Hof Hotel in the southern German city.

   He added that China "accepts international law only selectively where
   it does not run counter to its own interests."

   "And our closest ally, the United States of America, under the present
   administration itself, rejects the idea of an international community.
   We fall back into the classical security dilemma: more mistrust, more
   armament and then less security. These are the inevitable
   consequences."

   List of problems

   World leaders have descended on Munich with a long list of global
   flashpoints to resolve, from regional conflicts in the Middle East to
   rising competition between the U.S. and China. Longtime observers of
   the conference sense a change of tone.

   "This enhanced sense of danger seems to be pulling the Americans and
   the Europeans a bit closer together," said James Davis, a professor of
   international politics at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

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