In the European space, they bank on the so-called “soft powers” to prevent and peacefully solve frozen conflicts and not allow their re-escalation, associate professor at the Military Academy Natalia Albu, the founder of the Platform for Security and Defense Initiatives, stated in IPN’s public debate “Frozen conflicts: genesis, dangers, settlement”.

Natalia Albu noted that unlike the European space, the measures to identify solutions turn into violent confrontations in other spaces, such as the Middle East, where the military hostilities between Israel and Palestine were revived. “There, it was clear that there were frozen conflicts and the re-escalation of military confrontations was inevitable. We are talking about violent confrontations, which make the situation differ from that in European spaces,” she said.

Natalia Albu stated that in addition to the conflicting parties, there is also a third interested power and this is specific to frozen conflicts. “So, the frozen conflicts have no terminology, because the great power that is really involved has no interest in resolving this conflict. On the contrary, it is interested in maintaining control over the territory. The conflicts often do not have an ethnic character even if this term is used, as if it would be an ethnic conflict, so as to find an excuse to maintain the situation unsolved,” said the expert.

Natalia Albu also said that there is a real peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, but in Moldova it is a so-called “peacekeeping mission” because it is not a peacekeeping mission according to international standards, for example of the UN. If a peacekeeping mission had existed, the Republic of Moldova, together with the deployed mission, could have applied the right to protect its citizens. So that’s the connection between frozen conflict and human security. The fact that these territories are not controlled is another important element specific to frozen conflicts.

According to Natalia Albu, the frozen conflicts mean also a low level of quality of human life, a precarious situation in terms of respect for human rights and a shadow economy, which is not controlled. “We are also talking about the possibility of seeing heightened crime, which is a regional and international threat,” she added.

The public debate entitled “Frozen conflicts: genesis, dangers, settlement” was the 26th installment of IPN’s project “Impact of the Past on Confidence and Peace Building Processes” which is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.