In the last few months, there
have been numerous high-level meetings between NATO and the Mediterranean
Dialogue partner countries. Mostly these have taken the form of bilateral
encounters, such as visits to NATO by a delegation of women from the Jordanian
Armed Forces visiting NATO on May 20th and May 21st, or by
leading opinion leaders from Tunisia
on May 26th. The first visit to a Mediterranean Dialogue partner
country by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen took place on March 7th.
While staying in Jordan,
Mr. Rasmussen delivered a speech at a conference organized by the Jordanian
Institute of Diplomacy in cooperation with NATO's Public Diplomacy Division. He underlined the necessity to strengthen
the partnership between NATO and Jordan, and with other countries partaking in
the Mediterranean Dialogue. Rasmussen affirmed that, "at a time when our nations face many common security challenges,
we need a new level of international engagement to deal with them - a level of
engagement that stretches across frontiers, across cultures and across
religions. And I believe that NATO and our Mediterranean partners can set a
real example in strengthening that common purpose and translating it into
concrete, common action".
On the whole, Mr. Rasmussen's statement summarized the aims of the
Mediterranean Dialogue. From the official engagement of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization in the Mediterranean region in the 1994, to today, these aims
(primarily the search for joint and concrete action) have been adapted to the
historical changes that have occurred during these years. Besides, after 9/11,
various measures have been adopted to promote more regular and effective
consultations, more focused activities and a tailored approach to cooperation.
The decision to intensify political discussions has led to the upgrading of the
Dialogue in Partnership (Istanbul Summit, June 2004). Essentially, this
upgrading has been characterized by an increase of meetings at the ambassadorial
level and by the organization of ad hoc meetings at the ministerial level. The results have been the intensification of
the confidence-building process and the establishment of many contacts at the institutional
level between NATO and the governments of the Mediterranean countries.
In order to attain the objectives
embraced in the Mediterranean Dialogue, members advance the political
discussion, which is characterized by a multilateral dimension, and promote
practical cooperation, which is largely a bilateral dimension affair. The practical
cooperation has been the most successful aspect of the corporation efforts to
date. Many participating countries benefit from a series of mechanisms
originally developed within the framework of the Partnership for Peace (a major
program of practical bilateral cooperation between NATO and individual partner
countries). The practical measures include activities in the fields of
information, science and environment, civil emergency planning, crisis
management, defense policy and strategy, border security, humanitarian mine action,
defense reform, and consultations on terrorism and the proliferation of weapons
mass destruction.
The limits of the
partnership are far more apparent in the political realm. There are many
obstacles to improving the dialogue on a multilateral level. One of the
problems here is that the countries that are party to the Mediterranean Dialogue
are actually located in two distinct geographical areas and hence have
different requirements and preferences. The Maghreb countries (e.g. Algeria, Egypt) are far more preoccupied
with questions of economic and civil society development. Mashrek countries,
such as Jordan,
however find themselves far more concerned with questions such as the Arab-Israeli
peace process. Last but not least, there is considerable disagreement among
NATO member states on how to approach the Mediterranean region. This is
particularly true of the different opinions espoused by Americans and
Europeans.
It would be in the interest
of NATO to pay greater attention to the distinctions between the Maghreb and the Mashrek countries and their respective
concerns. All parties to the Mediterranean Dialogue process would benefit from
the identification of a common goal around which to rally. Terrorism could
serve as such a focal point, considering Rasmussen's speech during his visit in
Jordan.
In this context, an objective to be pursued might be the greater involvement of
Muslim countries in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan.
Related Materials:
- Jean-Thomas Lesueur: Towards Sustainable Security in the Maghreb Region
- Olaf Theiler: NATO Tensions No Cause for Alarm
- Ed Burke: Spain's War in Afghanistan
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June 14, 2010
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Islamic support for the Kabul government could be a lead into the right direction