European Security Council

In making decisions from offering jobs in his Cabinet to negotiating treaties with foreign powers--White House aides try always to follow one rule: Never put the President in a position where he is publicly rebuffed. Monday night, that rule was broken in the most public of circumstances: In the bright spotlight of an international summit meeting, President Bush went into a one-on-one meeting with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev expecting to get public endorsement for a tough new U.N.

The foreign ministers of 35 European and North American nations agreed here Thursday to set up a new emergency procedure that will let a handful of members call a meeting to consider situations that might endanger peace. Until now, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) could not act to debate so-called emergency situations without a consensus agreement of all its members.

The foreign ministers of 35 European and North American nations agreed here Thursday to set up a new emergency procedure that will let a handful of members call a meeting to consider situations that might endanger peace. Until now, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) could not act to debate so-called emergency situations without a consensus agreement of all its members.

In making decisions from offering jobs in his Cabinet to negotiating treaties with foreign powers--White House aides try always to follow one rule: Never put the President in a position where he is publicly rebuffed. Monday night, that rule was broken in the most public of circumstances: In the bright spotlight of an international summit meeting, President Bush went into a one-on-one meeting with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev expecting to get public endorsement for a tough new U.N.

Leaders of former Communist states of Eastern Europe, further shifting the Continent's balance of power, said Tuesday that they are pressing for the abolition of the Warsaw Pact to complete the dramatic changes that began there a year ago with the wave of anti-Marxist revolutions.

If Germany was the most important topic at the U.S.-Soviet summit, it was also the one that President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev did the least to resolve. And in putting the issue aside, they postponed coming to grips with the sometimes unwelcome implications of their own policies. Bush held to his position, supported by all his NATO allies as well as half the nations of the collapsing Warsaw Pact, that a united Germany should be a full member of NATO.

It would be a mistake to forget about the near "high noon" shoot-out, fringed with farce, between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces and Russian troops at Pristina airport and the subsequent military tensions. Relations between Russia and the West have dissipated dangerously since the end of the Cold War. Kosovo is largely symptom, not cause. This matters. A democratic, reasonably cooperative Russia is Europe's single most important security issue.

Leaders of former Communist states of Eastern Europe, further shifting the Continent's balance of power, said Tuesday that they are pressing for the abolition of the Warsaw Pact to complete the dramatic changes that began there a year ago with the wave of anti-Marxist revolutions.