Since the end of the Cold War with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the demise of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, NATO membership expanded laterally by incorporating a number of Eastern European nations while its security concerns also evolved.
During this time, the alliance sent forces into harm’s way during the Persian Gulf Conflict to push Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991, the Baltics to confront Serbian “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia and Kosovo in the mid-1990s, and most recently to assist The United States in its ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now the alliance must reconsider its role in the 21st Century given that Russia is no longer a security threat while new strategic challenges, in particular asymmetric warfare by terror groups with global reach, face the NATO partners.
Against this backdrop, the Lisbon Summit established a way forward by formalizing NATO’s previously announced new strategic concept, a timetable to begin force reductions in Afghanistan, as well as potential areas of cooperation with Moscow.
NATO’s New Role
Leaders of the Alliance have agreed to a missile defense initiative, enhanced cyber-security efforts and to face the threats of terrorism. Moreover, the strategic partners reaffirmed Article 5 of the NATO charter that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
U.S. President Barack Obama told combined news sources, “Just as we will always back up that commitment with the conventional and nuclear strength that is necessary to defend our allies, we are now backing up that commitment with new capabilities as well.”
Mr. Obama said the new Strategic Concept shows that NATO is fully united about the way forward and committed to addressing the full range of security challenges of the 21st Century. In this regard, member nations agreed to develop a new missile defense capability large enough to cover all alliance territory and populations in Europe, as well as the United States that builds on the new “phased adaptive” approach to missile defense.
“It offers a role for all of our allies.” Obama said. “It responds to the threats of our times.”
Afghanistan Timetable
NATO will begin drawing down troops in Afghanistan in July 2011 with the intention of ending their combat role in 2014 by which time Afghan President Hamid Karzai believes a domestic standing army and police force will be in place and sufficient to handle the worn torn nation’s security needs.
According to the Associated Press, the lead civilian representative of the alliance in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, said troop withdrawals next year will be “shallow” and eventually accelerate. “We believe that goal is realistic,” Sedwill said. “And we have made plans to achieve it.”
Prior to the Summit, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that a long-term partnership between the alliance and Afghanistan will endure beyond the combat mission. “It is very important that Afghans, but also countries of the region, understand that NATO’s support for Afghanistan is for the long run,” he said.
NATO-Russia Relations
Another priority of the Lisbon summit was to re-energize areas of practical cooperation with Russia. Relations with Moscow had cooled since Russia’s military conflict with Georgia in 2008, but according to Mr. Rasmussen, there are areas of common interest where NATO and Russia can work together.
These include Afghanistan’s fight against drug trafficking as well as missile defense for Europe. Prior to the summit, Russia and NATO had reached an agreement whereby Russian helicopters along with trainers would be deployed to the region. With respect to a missile defense shield in Europe, Russian President Medyev said that Russia needs to be an “equal partner.”
NATO was established in 1949 to counter the threat of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. Today a chief concern for the alliance is the global economic crisis as it relates to defense budgets. According to Reuters, the new strategic concept also warns European nations not to cut defense spending too drastically because of the “growing discrepancy in military capabilities between the United States and Europe’s NATO members.”
In the final analysis, the foregoing concerns speak to NATO’s capacity to clarify a vision for the future and whether the alliance will be able to adapt in order to continue its preeminent role in dealing with Euro-Atlantic and global security challenges.
Kyle Colona - Kyle Colona is a freelance writer from the New York area with an extensive background in legal and regulatory affairs.
