meeting in October 2016, EU heads of state agreed to provide economic and development aid to Libya, Egypt and other North African nations that are the main countries of provenance for refugees, in a continuing effort to resolve the crisis. However, following the recent terrorist attacks in France, Belgium and Turkey, the possibility of terrorists entering EU countries disguised as refugees became a reality, forcing even those member states that are willing to take in refugees to tighten border controls. With terrorist threats aggravating the refugee problem, Europe is currently faced with a serious security crisis. In eastern Ukraine, despite Minsk II,3) the second ceasefire agreement reached in February 2015, military tensions are undiminished, with sporadic skirmishes between government forces and separatist forces still taking place. In September 2016, the ‘Trilateral Contact Group,’ a group of representatives of Ukraine’s government forces, separatist forces and the Russian Federation, convened, and the parties agreed on setting up three ‘pilot areas of disengagement’ as part of an ongoing effort to alleviate tensions in eastern Ukraine. In the Middle East, unrest persists due to a combination of factors including the ascendancy of violent extremist groups, sectarian strife and the vacuum of state power and control. In Syria, civil war is ongoing between the Assad regime and the rebel forces. In Iraq, military clashes are continuously occurring between government forces and ISIL4) in Mosul and other northern Iraqi cities. As for Iran, after signing the nuclear deal with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (P5+15)), the country is seeking to improve its relations with western nations. In the Middle East, on the other hand, Iran has had sectarian or political conflicts with some of the Gulf nations. Concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, no visible progress has been achieved in the way of resolving <Chart 1-1> Major Regions of Conflict Ukraine Iraq Europe Afghanistan syria Asia Middle East Yemen Israel Africa south sudan somalia the deep-seated tensions between the two countries. 3) Peace agreements entered into between Ukraine, russia, representatives of the separatist forces and the OSCe (Organization for Security and Cooperation in europe) in Minsk, Belarus, successively in September 2014 and in February 2015, to halt the war in the Donbass region of Ukraine. 4) islamic State of iraq and the Levant. 5) P5+1, abbreviation for the Permanent 5+1, refers to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (U.S., U.K., France, China and russia) and Germany. Section 1 Global Security environment 9 Chapter 1 the distribution of 120,000 refugees to twenty-eight countries. During the European Council