{"id":3065,"date":"2014-02-02T11:21:23","date_gmt":"2014-02-02T11:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/?p=3065"},"modified":"2014-02-17T19:51:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T19:51:20","slug":"needed-a-new-nato-for-the-21st-century-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/needed-a-new-nato-for-the-21st-century-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Needed: a new NATO for the 21st Century"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"This weekend marks the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of the annual Munich Security Conference. \u00a0First focused on Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Cold War, several years ago the conference broadened its agenda to cover global security. That said, the future of NATO must remain among the West\u2019s highest security priorities. \u00a0For a number of reasons, that is not happening.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
The dissolution of the Soviet Union a quarter of a century ago removed the threat for which NATO was uniquely created. The alliance manfully began the transformation to a post-Cold War world. \u00a0Since major threats now lay beyond NATO\u2019s borders, the alliance expanded its reach. \u00a0\u201cOut of area or out of business\u201d became the new mantra.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
September 11th<\/sup>, 2001 tested the alliance. \u00a0The day following the attacks, NATO invoked the centerpiece of its security guarantee—Article V—for the first time in its fifty-two year history to support America. \u00a0Article V specifies that an attack against one is an attack against all. \u00a0NATO would shortly join the U.S. \u00a0in \u00a0the Afghan mission.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Against the background of the 2008 financial crisis and struggling economies that mandated defense cuts, the 2010 biannual NATO heads of government and state summit held in Lisbon agreed on a new strategic concept. \u00a0Three core tasks were approved: collective defense; crisis management; and cooperative security. \u00a0Since then NATO expanded its partnerships with non-alliance members and intervened in Libya precipitating the end of the Qaddafi regime. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
The Obama administration would shortly announce a \u201cstrategic pivot\u201d to Asia. \u00a0That pivot distressed, frightened and perplexed NATO allies, worried Asian allies and angered China. \u00a0Along with the pivot, the U.S. reduced its ground forces in Europe, augmenting its naval forces and arguing that this rebalancing would not alter the American commitment to the continent.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
The Afghan mission is about to end. \u00a0Before it does, the next biannual summit convenes in Wales this September to discuss the alliance\u2019s future post-Afghanistan. As important but less likely, the summit should address rejuvenating the alliance at a time of both diminished public support and defense spending. \u00a0That rejuvenation requires re-examining and asking what the three core tasks in the strategic concept now mean and restating the case for the alliance in plain terms readily understood by publics and politicians alike.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Four years after Lisbon, the questions are \u201ccollective defense\u201d against whom or what; \u201ccrisis management\u201d under what circumstances; and \u201ccooperative security\u201d with whom and for what purposes? \u00a0Obviously, the newer and eastern most member states remain concerned about Russia and its intentions. \u00a0Russia\u2019s decision to increase its defenses is unsettling. \u00a0Moscow\u2019s creation of an economic partnership to counter the European Union; its use of its energy resources as a lever with the west; and its influence in Ukraine do not ease these concerns.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
The immediate dangers come from the south\u2014the Maghreb and the Middle East. \u00a0Syria is the largest crisis where possibly thousands of Jihadis are flocking for training. Egypt and Libya are wracked with violence and uncertainty. \u00a0And possible spillover to the very substantial Muslim populations in Europe is serious.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Similarly, the alliance must redefine what it means by crisis management. \u00a0It has given lip service to cyber, infrastructure protection and energy security. \u00a0It now must be more specific. Likewise, NATO must determine how to manage cooperative security given that it has set in place global partnerships.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Given economic realities, NATO cannot count on increased defense spending over the short to mid-term. \u00a0But it already spends quite a lot and U.S. demands for greater expenditures will not work. NATO should not worry too much about its total military capability and concentrate on ensuring interoperability so that when called upon the forces will successfully execute missions.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Greater staff exchanges and command post exercises can offset the decrease in large scale military maneuvers if done appropriately. \u00a0Strengthening education and training using advanced simulators and war games to compensate for reductions in operations can also reduce the impact on readiness. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Last, NATO does not do a good job in making the case for its importance. \u00a0More than sixty years ago, NATO\u2019s first Secretary-General British General The Lord Ismay quipped that the alliance\u2019s purpose was to keep the U.S. in, Germany down and the Russians out. Ismay\u2019s quip was more than jest. \u00a0Today, it can be expanded to advance the reasons why NATO is the centerpiece of western and global security.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
NATO\u2019s purposes in the 21st<\/sup> century are to keep Europe safe, danger out, Russia with and the U.S. in. \u00a0But then the alliance must broadcast this message widely and persistently to skeptical publics and politicians of its twenty-eight members. Unfortunately, the alliance seems to prefer the status quo. \u00a0If that attitude continues, the summit will be a lost opportunity. \u00a0And NATO cannot tolerate many more losses.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the annual Munich Security Conference. \u00a0First focused on Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Cold War, several years ago the conference broadened its agenda to cover global security. That said, the future of NATO must remain among the West\u2019s highest security priorities. \u00a0For a number of reasons, that is not happening. \u00a0 The dissolution of the Soviet Union a quarter of a century ago removed the threat for which NATO was uniquely created. The alliance manfully began the transformation to a post-Cold War world. \u00a0Since major threats now lay beyond NATO\u2019s borders, the alliance expanded its reach. \u00a0\u201cOut of area […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,79,76,86,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en","category-defense-homeland-security","category-harlan-ullman-en","category-international-peace-security","category-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3068,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065\/revisions\/3068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cass-ro.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}