Transition from one millennium to another is not just a calendar date, but rather a complex historical process of qualitative changes in the development of human civilisation. Such understanding of history is especially important when one would like to assess the 'double step' (a new century and a new millennium) being made at the advent of a new era. Together with the geopolitical regrouping, principal qualitative shifts are taking place on the international scene. They are already evident in the territories of some of the former republics of the Soviet Union which have been replaced by the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS). The goal of this book is to contribute to a more profound study of the global changes in the area of both international and national security which have been well underway in the world community in a whole and the CIS in particular, started by the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and accelerated by the subsequent political, economic and social reforms in the CIS countries.