Clinton Encourages New NATO Strategy
Washington — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says NATO is strongest as an alliance when it is united by common purposes and common principles. “Today we confront challenges that have parallels to the problems that faced the alliance at its inception,” Clinton said February 22.
Clinton said NATO faces a new strategic landscape, new technologies, new adversaries and new ideologies that threaten its security across the globe, not just within its traditional trans-Atlantic boundaries. “But I believe that the original tenets of NATO’s mission — defending our nations, strengthening trans-Atlantic ties, and fostering European integration — still hold,” she added in a speech February 22 before the opening of a daylong seminar on a new strategic vision for the alliance held at the National Defense University in Washington.
NATO must consolidate the gains that have been made since the alliance was founded April 4, 1949, but also must confront the new nature and origins of the threats it faces today, Clinton said. One of the most complex issues the alliance was beginning to face at the end of the 20th century was operations outside its traditional geographic boundaries.
Some of those operations include NATO ships combating maritime piracy off the Horn of Africa, providing military training to 14,000 Iraqi army troops and supporting the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
“In an interconnected world, we cannot defend our people by crouching behind the geographic boundaries of the alliance,” Clinton said. “Many threats we face have little or no respect for borders.”
“Whether we’re battling piracy, or the menace of terrorism, or the prospect of weapons proliferation, we must be prepared to address new dangers regardless of where they originate,” she added.
NATO has embarked on a series of seminars that are intended to help craft a new strategic concept for the 28-nation alliance. The strategic concept is the core NATO document that defines the trans-Atlantic alliance on its roles, missions, capabilities and strategy for managing security challenges in the 21st century. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is leading a 12-member group of international experts to revise the strategic concept, which was last revised in 1999.
Since 1999, NATO has begun conducting military operations well beyond its traditional European boundaries, such as in Afghanistan. This has been the subject of considerable debate within the alliance.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told students at Georgetown University in Washington February 22 that NATO often doesn’t get the visibility it should in the United States, but the alliance, created at the beginning of the Cold War, does and should play an essential role in the country’s long-term security. Facing today’s threats and challenges, Rasmussen said, needs the cooperation of like-minded democratic nations.
“The problems of the 21st century can only be solved multilaterally,” he said. “And there is no stronger and more effective framework for that cooperation than NATO.”
To demonstrate the effectiveness of multilateral responses to new challenges, Rasmussen cited examples of cooperation on terrorism, cybersecurity, nuclear proliferation and missile defense as areas where NATO activities have had a significant impact.
Rasmussen also discussed the role of NATO’s partner countries. Though not formal members of the alliance, they form a network that helps NATO with security challenges beyond the traditional areas of the alliance. Clinton said that in the new strategic concept, NATO should examine how to leverage this cooperation to make these relationships more productive.
“In sum, the Atlantic alliance squares the circle of multilateralism and effectiveness,” Rasmussen said. “That is not easy to do. But today more than ever, when we are looking for security in an age of uncertainty, it is precious.”
EUROPEAN DEFENSE
One area that has created some tension between NATO and the European Union has been security cooperation. Clinton said that in the past the United States had been ambivalent about NATO’s role in security cooperation with the EU. Part of the concern was that many EU countries who were also in NATO would give more support to a common European security and defense initiative and less support for NATO.
Clinton clarified the U.S. position on European security and defense.
“We do not see the EU as a competitor of NATO, but we see a strong Europe as an essential partner with NATO and with the United States,” Clinton said. “We look forward to working together with the EU as it applies its Common Security and Defense Policy to determine how we can best support one another and the United Nations in addressing security challenges.”
NATO AND RUSSIA
Clinton told the international group that the United States wants a cooperative NATO-Russia relationship that produces concrete results and also draws NATO and Russia closer.
“While Russia faces challenges to its security, NATO is not among them,” Clinton said.
Russia has offered a new European Security Treaty and a new NATO-Russia treaty, but Clinton said the United States does not see the need for new treaties.
“We believe discussions of European security should take place within existing forums for European security such as the [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] and the NATO-Russia Council,” Clinton said.
Clinton acknowledged that there are “real differences” with Russia, but said the forum for talks on areas of disagreement is the NATO-Russia Council. One example she cited was using the council to encourage Russia to honor its commitments on Georgia. Russia and Georgia fought a brief conflict in August 2008 over breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Clinton added that the NATO-Russia Council is also the place where common interests can be advanced, “including the indivisibility of our common security.”
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