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Editorial Team: Adrian Kendry responds to member questions about NATO capabilities, specialization, and other aspects of smart defense. He also explains NATO’s commitment to energy efficiency and talks about resource wars and terrorist financing.
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Editorial Team: Adrian Kendry has answered questions from atlantic-community.org members about the security implications of the financial and economic crises. In the first part, he talks about potential threats to the stability of the Alliance, terrorist recruitment and defense spending levels.
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William C. Fleeson: President Obama won a second term one month ago this week. Transatlantic security experts have predicted everything from the dismal to the miraculous. Here’s a cautiously pessimistic assessment of what the next four years could hold for defense in the Atlantic sphere.
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NATO: For many of the soldiers injured in Afghanistan their war is over, some of them will make a full recovery while others require round-the-clock care. The dedicated team of staff and volunteers at the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility, or CASF, work tirelessly to make sure these soldiers return to their families.
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Remziye Yilmaz: Despite all efforts to have a fully-fledged strategic partnership between the EU and NATO, such a genuine strategic partnership has still not been achieved because of various obstacles. Cyprus conflict is one of the main obstacles that have decreased EU-NATO cooperation in the context of security and defense.
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Editorial Team: Adrian Kendry is NATO’s Senior Defense Economist and works in the Emerging Security Challenges Division. In our latest Q&A, he takes your questions on the interaction of economic and security challenges. Watch his opening statement.
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Tornike Zurabashvili: The unexpected Georgian elections opened up discussion on the possible future of Georgian-Russian relations. Anticipating Georgian withdrawal from its western ambitions is largely exaggerated; there are numerous reasons why a radical change in relations cannot and should not be expected with the new government in power.
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NATO: 19 NATO and partner nations enhanced their interoperability at the US Army Europe’s training event “Sabre Junction 2012” in Grafenwoehr, Germany. 6,000 personnel and hundreds of military aircraft and vehicles participated in the month-long exercise. It was the largest of its kind in Germany since the end of the Cold War.
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Editorial Team: In celebration of the 12th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, atlantic-community.org invites you to participate in our next Q&A session with NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, Ambassador Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. She will be answering questions on “Women, Peace and Security”.
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NATO: Bombs and bullets are not the only danger faced by soldiers in the field. There is also the threat of infectious diseases and bioterrorist attacks. In an example of smart defense, NATO is working on building up a multinational system that identifies and tracks not only bioattacks but also naturally occurring maladies.
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Tabish Shah: The on-going conflict in Syria, the anti-American nature of protests in the Middle East, increased Green on Blue attacks, among other issues has created a new set of geopolitical challenges. Could these challenges be better pre-empted by channelling smart defence through a more robust Germany-Turkey-United States partnership in order to advance NATO states’ collective interests?
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NATO Review: The world looks to have won a brief reprieve from a food security crisis, with grain prices stabilizing in the last few months of 2012 after a mid-year surge that brought back memories of the 2007-08 food riots. Geoff Hiscock looks at how enough food production and water usage for everyone is attainable.
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Shafiq Hamdam: The increasing number of insider attacks have been a serious issue for the coalition forces in Afghanistan. However, there are a number of reasons behind these attacks, which are known as green on blue. The issue of cultural sensitivity is one of those major elements.
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Yasser Abumuailek: Despite its re-conception after the fall of Communism to adapt to the new challenges of an ever-changing world, NATO is facing a new challenge it must master before it’s too late: winning the hearts and minds on the social media front.
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Editorial Team: Ambassador Alexander Vershbow has answered your questions! Read his responses on a range of topics covering NATO’s post-summit agenda, including Afghanistan, the conflict in Syria, relations with Russia, the operation in Libya, Smart Defense, missile defense, and NATO’s role in the Caucasus.
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NATO: On 6 and 7 September NATO’s Secretary General visited the South Caucasus – a region that is strategically important to the Alliance. NATO has been progressively deepening dialogue and cooperation with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia since the early 1990s.
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Rusudan Vashakidze: What should Georgia expect from its relationship with Russia even if the West gets nothing but aggressive energy policy and a disregard for international law? Four years after the August War in 2008 the road to the West for the young democratic country remains dynamic and filled with geopolitical struggles.
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Editorial Team: Atlantic-community.org invites you to participate in our next Q&A session with Alexander Vershbow, the Deputy Secretary General of NATO. Ambassador Vershbow is set to take your questions on NATO policy after the Chicago summit. His answers will be posted on atlantic-community.org for members to comment.
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Stanley R. Sloan: The American Euro-fatigue combined with a perception in Europe that Washington is losing interest in its affairs might mark the beginning of the end of transatlantic relations. Ignoring the significance in improving closer ties will only help to jeopardize European and American interests.
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Daria Wiktoria Dylla: Romney has attacked current US security policy for a missile defense plan unfavorable to NATO allies in Central Europe. Especially Poland may be in a vulnerable position without the external security balance provided by the US, but the removal of troops will be compensated for by the positioning of missiles. Thus, Poland has nothing to worry about.
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Rhys Ashvin Merrett: Recent activity by the EU High Representative and Secretary General of NATO reflect the surge of interest in the Asia-Pacific. However, the extent of NATO and EU strategic involvement in the region is dependent upon a group of 21 European states that are members of both institutions.
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NATO: During the Lisbon Summit in 2010, Alliance leaders agreed they wanted a leaner NATO Command Structure that is more affordable and more deployable on operations. The new structure represents a significant reduction in the number of military headquarters and a manpower savings of about 30 percent.
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Matteo Scianna: Germany should use her armament export policy as a means of “smart power”. Selling tanks to Saudi Arabia would help foster a strategic partnership. Pursuing a comprehensive approach with European and NATO partners in arms sales would assure continued influence in key regions.
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NATO: In Ørland, Norway, 17 nations took part in the two-week Unified Vision trial. The objective was to train NATO member countries to work together in the framework of NATO’s Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR) concept. The event was organised by the JISR Capability Group and NATO’s defence against terrorism programme.
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Editorial Team: Our 2012 policy workshop competition featured many fantastic articles from our members, produced great Atlantic Memos and received enthusiastic feedback from decision makers! Editor-in-Chief Joerg Wolf takes a look back at the five months of “Your Ideas, Your NATO” in this new video.
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Henri Erti: NATO membership for Estonia can be beneficial if future tangible opportunities and probabilities of external aggression are regarded as priorities.
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Steffen Buenau: To effectively support the ongoing transformation within Russia, Europe should put to use its most effective “soft power” tool: a relaxation of visa regulations. Such an approach is not only effective with regard to domestic transformation but will also help restore credibility in an area where Russian co-operation is crucial, namely, Syria.
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NATO: On the International Day of the Seafarer, June 22, the International Maritime Organization and the project “Oceans Beyond Piracy” released a new report called “The Human Cost of Somali Piracy” which highlights the plight of hostages.
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Ross Wilson: Five days after Syria’s downing of a Turkish F-4 fighter aircraft, Prime Minister Erdogan brought the crisis to a close by securing NATO support, reporting its views to the UN Security Council, complaining formally to Damascus, and altering the rules of engagement along the 500-plus mile border with its neighbor to the south. Both militaries may now be somewhat more visibly at loggerheads.
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Georgi Ivanov: The first annual 2012 Model NATO Youth Summit will take place July 8-13 in Brussels. This event offers students a unique chance to learn first-hand about how NATO operates since it simulates the actual decision-making process. The summit should also produce innovative ideas to help the Alliance in the future.
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Andrew Walker: NATO hopes to have its anti-ballistic missile defense in place by 2018. Any future system will bring with it high financial and diplomatic costs. The question is whether NATO wishes to actually pay those costs for a system that is still unproven and will never be 100% effective.
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NATO: How can we achieve a more perfect alliance? Ambassador Zygimantas Pavilionis of Lithuania tries to answer this question and talks about how his experience influences his view of NATO as an organization protecting freedom and democracy, as part of a video series from the National Defense University’s Center for Transatlantic Security Studies.
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NATO Review: Smart defense is a concept that encourages Allies to cooperate in developing, acquiring and maintaining military capabilities to meet current security problems in accordance with the new NATO strategic concept. Therefore, NATO smart defense means pooling and sharing capabilities, setting priorities and coordinating efforts better.
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Ramin Daniel Rezai: The international community is under immense pressure to deal with Syria, as al-Assad and his regime continue to use brute force against their citizens. Because diplomacy and sanctions have yet to show success, the best guarantee to stopping the loss of life is a legitimate, but illegal armed intervention in Syria.
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Memo 41: NATO’s Chicago Summit left many observers disappointed. Going forward, the Alliance should focus on concrete and achievable policy objectives. This Memo offers recommendations from atlantic-community.org members that could strengthen the Alliance’s unity and overall ability to deal with a changing world.
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Yasir Kuoti: The Arab Spring is not over yet and is far from the simple narrative of peace and democracy. In these underdeveloped societies, there are many difficulties to overcome and different paths to be chosen. The West should respect any democratic elections or decisions, even if Islamic-inspired.
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Joshua Clapp: With the Chicago Summit wrapped up, the pundits are weighing in about what they think the Summit accomplished and what it means for NATO. If most of the commentators are correct about the Summit, then the Alliance should not be congratulating itself too much.
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Philip Murphy: The US Ambassador to Germany spoke at atlantic-community.org’s event in Berlin about transparency for NATO in the 21st century, how the Atlantic Memo provides a “good solid policy report” on this important issue, and the value of youth engagement in transatlantic relations.
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Editorial Team: At the culmination of atlantic-community.org’s policy workshop competition, the winners Stephanie Baulig, Geoffrey Levin, and Samuel Erickson discussed their team’s policy recommendations with Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defense Christian Schmidt and US Ambassador Philip D. Murphy.
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Ilija Djugumanov: Only a year and a half since the New Strategic Concept was adopted, NATO has many challenges to deal with. As the global situation changes, so do the priorities of the Alliance. In light of the situation, where exactly are the Balkans on NATO’s agenda?
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Editorial Team: The many good ideas from non-shortlisted authors in the third category of our “Your Ideas, Your NATO” competition have been brought together in this article. A recurring theme was the need for NATO to more precisely define its and the Members’ roles in order for Smart Defense to be implemented successfully.
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Stefanie Babst: NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy appeared at atlantic-community.org’s policy debate in Berlin yesterday via video, offering her reaction to the three Atlantic Memos from the policy workshop competition.
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Joerg Wolf: A plethora of op-eds in the US and German media argue that the Alliance needs to be rescued, revitalized, resurrected, and reinvented. The think tankers want to reaffirm or renegotiate the transatlantic bargain and look for a revolution to overcome geostrategic irrelevance.
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Joerg Wolf: Atlantic-community.org’s editor-in-chief was part of a group of 59 politicians, scholars, and other observers invited to take part in the Atlantic Council and Foreign Policy Magazine’s survey on the future of NATO. Here he explains why he answered the way he did and offers some thoughts about why NATO needs to focus on building capabilities, not proving its relevance.
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Ramin Daniel Rezai: Preparations for the Chicago Summit are well underway, as NATO extends formal invitations to its strategic partners, undertakes pre-summit consultations with its members and sets summit priorities. As the summit approaches, the city of Chicago is putting strict security measures in place.
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NATO: More than half the casualties among the NATO forces in Afghanistan in 2011 were caused by improvised explosive devices (IED). This is also the case for one in three Afghans killed last year. In 2010, NATO adopted an action plan on counter-IED (C-IED) aimed at increasing the detection and neutralization of such devices, as well as the dismantling of the networks that manufacture them.
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Andrea Teti: Western governments need to recognize that authoritarian regimes are often fierce but not strong; that privatization is rarely the road to liberalization, much less democratization; and that Islamism was as wrong-footed by the uprisings as they were.
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Vivien Pertusot: Tensions are already emerging between France’s new President and key partners. The potential for early French withdrawal from Afghanistan is one of the issues at the heart of them and has caused concerns in Allied capitals and at NATO. But let’s not exaggerate the issue.
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Editorial Team: The additional articles from the second category of “Your Ideas, Your NATO” have been merged into a single “Your Opinion” piece. A recurring theme was that NATO must build civil-military relations and an intercultural youth dialogue, as well as undertake good governance and rule of law initiatives in order to support the long-term transition process underway in partner countries.
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NATO: The klaxon shrieks at Tampere Air Base in Finland. Four minutes later, two F-18 Hornet fighter jets from the Finnish Air Force take off. Their mission – to intercept an aircraft that is not complying with international air traffic regulations. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the surveillance of European airspace is a sensitive topic for the Alliance Member states and their partners.
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Volodymyr Navrotskyy: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has rich experience in conducting operations in places such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Nevertheless, NATO is not the institution which has to preserve world peace.
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Editorial Team: The Canadian Defense Minister, members of the Canadian and Norwegian assemblies and a Policy Advisor for the Dutch House of Representatives have responded to the memos from our policy workshop! Read on to find out which proposals they support and see policy influence in action.
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Editorial Team: The NATO Summit in Chicago offers the Alliance a chance to address some of its most pressing issues. Besides subjects such as Afghanistan and defense expenditures, NATO will also have to deal with the possibility of protests during the Summit and the concerns of Chicago citizens.
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Editorial Team: The “Your Ideas, Your NATO” policy workshop competition produced many ideas. In particular, NATO must do much more to create unity amongst its Members. To ensure an enduring bond, the Alliance must build comprehensive ties with civil society in order to accentuate NATO’s economic benefits for its Members.
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NATO: The Danish warship HMDS Absalon has freed 12 hostages and taken on board 16 suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia. It is a successful end to their six-month deployment under NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield. But Denmark now faces a dilemma. Unless a country in the region can be persuaded to take them ashore and prosecute them, the suspects will have to be set free again in Somalia.
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Editorial Team: You are cordially invited to a discussion in Berlin between Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defense Christian Schmidt, US Ambassador Philip D. Murphy, and the winners of our policy workshop competition. The dialogue will focus on unity in the Alliance, NATO’s partnerships after the Arab Spring, and Smart Defense.
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Editorial Team: Atlantic-community.org is happy to announce the winners of Category 3 of our policy workshop competition. Samuel Eamon Erickson is our first place winner and will present the Atlantic Memo to decision makers at our event in May. Bram Peter De Ridder is our second place winner.
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Memo 40: NATO’s Smart Defense initiative aims to provide more security for less money. The Alliance can reach this goal by facilitating more cooperation, providing efficiency mechanisms, encouraging cooperation amongst like-minded states, and including non-NATO actors.
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Editorial Team: The third and last category of our “Your Ideas, Your NATO” policy competition dealt with how to encourage NATO Members to invest in Smart Defense. While five articles have already been shortlisted, we wanted to highlight the other high quality submissions and policy ideas.
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Editorial Team: In the third theme week from our policy workshop, we focus on NATO and Smart Defense. How might NATO encourage nations, concerned about diminished sovereignty, to invest in Smart Defense? What mechanisms would make this kind of cooperation efficient and effective? Read our young writers’ top ideas!
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Samuel Eamon Erickson: Successfully encouraging NATO Members to buy into the Smart Defense project requires proactive efforts to ensure a fair, efficient, and fiscally beneficial product. NATO must then focus on packaging this product in a convincing way.
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Dmitry Stefanovich: Military and technical cooperation with Russia would allow NATO to increase the efficiency of their Smart Defense initiative. A closer look at the areas of cooperation between NATO and Russia reveal they are ideally suited to being part of the Smart Defense concept.
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Max Smeets: Smart Defense needs a framework that aims to mitigate the negative aspects of specialization that impose upon state sovereignty. In the context of Smart Defense, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Setting up NATO Pioneer Groups (NPG) is the way forward.
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Emine Akcadag: The United States should encourage its allies to invest in Smart Defense by strategically cutting NATO military expenditure so that European NATO members shoulder more of the brunt by investing in Smart Defense. Public opinion must also support this and can be mobilized.
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Dirk Siebels: In essence, ‘smart defense‘ is a euphemism, describing the need to achieve ‘greater security for less money‘ as defense budgets are under pressure in almost all NATO member states. Joint spending and common ownership, however, would indeed help NATO and its members to get more.
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Sarah Wagner: In order to ensure the successful implementation and sustainability of Smart Defense policies, NATO needs to focus its attention on the next generation of leaders and officials and invest in their training and cooperation.
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Costinel Anuta: Smart Defense should not envision only joining resources, or jointly developing critical capabilities. A Smart Defense approach needs to be built on foresight, scalability, as well as a sound lessons-learned mechanism in order to be truly smart.
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Thomas Brisson: Smart Defense is about sharing capabilities and coordinating strategies inside NATO. A structured and institutionalized cooperation as the Smart Defense Agency is the only way for it to be efficient, while safeguarding national sovereignty.
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Nico Segers: Authoritative impact analysis and threat resilience studies carried out by scientific boards may sway idling NATO members to recognize the dire need to step up investments. The most important investments would come in areas that cover imminent and multilevel defense and security issues.
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Michelle Shevin-Coetzee: The first step to in building up “Smart Defense” is to cut back on the NATO “in country” bureaucracy. Bureaucratic bloat hinders NATO’s operations. The creation of a more unified command structure is the first step in making the Smart Defense initiative a success.
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Andrew Windsor: NATO’s Smart Defense initiative has the potential to restructure NATO in a sustainable way. This article illustrates two main focal points to maximize efficiency returns; refocusing standing NATO forces and a larger leadership role in coordinating defense efforts of member states.
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Camlo Kalandra: NATO must seek to cut costs and increase sovereignty sharing through new mechanisms to remain relevant to the global struggle for joint security and peace. The first step is that each state adopts a national specialization for a specific security priority which would be overseen by a Oversight Committee.
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Yasmin Jeanice Mattox: In order to turn reticent support into bold action, Smart Defense must be an attractive political option for NATO members. I advocate a three-pronged approach that makes Smart Defense palatable by making it a practical and effective strategy from which NATO can achieve its security objectives.
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Igor Leonidovic Fayler: Specialization within NATO will become more viable and sustainable if capabilities are converted into NATO-wide organizational equipment which would comprise of hardware, including armaments, and software such as communication and organization equipment. This will enhance interoperability and make Smart Defense a success.
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Ashley Ann Clayton Hess: In order to successfully implement NATO’s Smart Defense policy, the alliance must create a new high-ranking position and implement a sustained public relations campaign to encourage continued support of NATO’s Smart Defense reorientation.
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Jonathan Dowdall: Smart Defense cannot succeed with good PR alone. Diminishing military sovereignty in Smart Defense must be accepted by NATO. Real democratic debate and focus on existing “best practice” mechanisms is needed.
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Alice Pannier: Pooling and sharing defense equipment has become a strategic necessity for NATO members and especially European countries. Limited cooperation among two or three partners is the most flexible and efficient solution, but it requires careful coordination and the breaking of political taboos.
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Francesc Pont: No twenty-first century defensive strategy should be deemed complete and truly comprehensive unless a further hitherto purely national element is included in the transnational mix pursued by NATO: incremental intelligence sharing between member states should be the icing on the contemporary security cake.
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Iliana Panayotova: NATO shall seek a strategic partnership with the EU for the implementation of the smart defense concept on a “community level”. On a national level, the Alliance should enforce the bilateral dialogues with its members and assist them in adopting multilateral and bilateral approaches.
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Jérémy Thirion: NATO should shift from a top-down approach to a “bottom-up” approach: a less centralized NATO, letting its Member States cooperate under its umbrella but with more flexibility. Such approach, allowing Member States to work on a regional or topic basis could be more motivating and satisfactory.
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José Alberto da Silva Almada e Alves Guimarães: Smart Defense not only demands strong political will, but cooperation. To achieve this, NATO must liberalize the European Defense Market, make the EU package of directives pertaining to military goods better assist medium-sized enterprises, as well as utilize the Permanent Structured Cooperation and Smart Defense-related initiatives.
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Dmitry Lifatov: NATO has never been an exclusively military organization. But its pretension to playing a political role has also never been particularly appealing to the European NATO members. In this vein, Smart Defense is just another attempt to make the EU a convenient tool for American foreign policy.
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Georgi Ivanov: Creating an EU Structural Defense Fund is the key to NATO’s Smart Defense initiative. This will ease the fiscal commitment for NATO to do more with less, while providing states with the incentive to spend more on defense without meeting their 2 percent of GDP obligations.
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Tabish Shah: NATO’s Smart Defense initiative requires more than simply technological projects. The success of Smart Defense relies on NATO finding common strategic goals before Members are willing to come together and pool and share their military resources.
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Zachary B. Toal: In order for Smart Defense to work, NATO member states need to be agree on a new purpose for NATO in the future. NATO members will not concede their monopoly of use of force if they cannot agree on when to use shared capabilities.
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Moritz Sebastian Eckert: While NATO’s capabilities are increasing in quantity, quality and efficiency, its threat recognition is both outdated and laggard. As the cornerstone of a successful defense, threat recognition determines the benchmarks for national armies and thus requires immediate attention.
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Editorial Team: Atlantic-community.org is happy to announce the winners of Category 2 of our policy workshop competition. Geoffrey Levin is our first place winner and will present the Atlantic Memo to decision makers at our event in May. Vivien Pertusot is our second place winner.
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Memo 39: New challenges require new partnerships. NATO must reach out to countries in North Africa by restructuring the Mediterranean Dialogue and partnering with other institutional actors to offer comprehensive assistance aimed at building democratic institutions.
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NATO: WE-NATO is an interactive social media platform which uses different formats such as livestream interviews, chats, video blogs, comment pages, articles and blogs, to interact with you in an open and transparent dialogue on issues related to NATO’s current agenda.
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Editorial Team: March was filled with a number of special segments at atlantic-community.org. From our continuing Q&A series with NATO officials (the most extensive yet) to our policy workshop competition (with a second Atlantic Memo coming next week), here are the top highlights from the month.
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Gökhan Tekir: To prevent a NATO attack on its country, Iran is seeking to expand its sphere of influence. However, in the long term Iran’s allies will not be able to maintain their hold on power because of domestic troubles. Such troubles leave Iran in the precarious situation of relying on unstable allies.
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Alexander Corbeil: Given NATO’s linkages to Arab states through the Mediterranean Dialogue, the Alliance should actively support the transition to democracy in post-Arab Spring countries by utilizing its various resources in the realms of institutional creation, democracy promotion, and security sector reform.
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Gillian Kennedy: NATO should seek to encourage a stronger collaborative relationship with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The OSCE has experience with a number of democracy-building options that are outside NATO’s expertise, but key to a stronger relationship with states caught up in the Arab Spring.
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Josiah Jason Surface: NATO must take concrete steps to strengthen its partnership framework with North Africa. Inviting Libya to join, expanding the topics covered, and tying the dialogue to discussions with the Arab League will help strengthen the Mediterranean community and the ties of partnership.
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Vivien Pertusot: NATO’s leverage in the Arab world is limited, and the Arab uprisings illustrated it. Transition and reform processes will leave little room for NATO. Its only options are to better clarify its expectations, to listen more, and to cooperate with other actors to offer multifaceted cooperation packages.
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Editorial Team: In the second theme week from our current policy workshop, we focus on NATO’s partnerships in North Africa and the Middle East. How can NATO best interact with the new governments forming in the wake of the Arab Spring and what should its role be in furthering security in the region? Read our young writers’ top ideas!
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Arik Segal: The Arab Spring has introduced a new actor to Middle Eastern foreign policies: the people. NATO should recognize this change and design a new public diplomacy approach that will aim to understand the new liberated nations and increase engagement with them.
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Yasmin Jeanice Mattox: NATO should encourage new intercultural youth dialogues that focus on intercultural understanding and encourage transnational unity. By increasing intercultural appreciation, these dialogues could minimize and even disincentivize future military and diplomatic issues.
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Emine Deniz: Turkey is the key component for sustainable relationships between NATO and the Middle East and North Africa. As a NATO member, Turkey represents a military and economic bridge between the West and MENA. NATO must utilize Turkey’s connections to improve the Alliance’s relations with the region.
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Gökhan Tekir: The transition period to democracy for Arab countries that experienced revolutions may beget more turmoil and civil wars. The involvement of NATO highlights the fact that Turkey has a role to help these countries set the course for stable democracies and solid economies.
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Giulia Clericetti: NATO has a chance of enhancing its cooperation in MENA, but it has to confine it to the military/strategic field, without any democratic rhetoric, and change its air of superiority to a cooperation on an equal footing that minds about the difference of cultural languages.
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Elizabeth Mallia: The Mediterranean Dialogue’s aspect of soft power is one of the greatest strength’s of NATO initiative. NATO should use this soft power in tandem with social media to promote NATO’s values and agenda in the region.
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Robert James Hurd: As developing nations seek to improve their status at home and abroad, the focus must be on improve the Rule of Law, NATO ought to use its members’ expertise and experience to support efforts in developing nations to establish a Rule of Law in order to support long-term partnerships and stability.
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Lukas Hoder: As the experiences in East and Central European countries show, the transformation from autocratic regime to democratic government is a slow and hard process. We should be patient with the new democratic governments forming in wake of the Arab Spring.
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David Vielhaber: The Arab Spring narrative of a democratic transformation in the Middle East and North Africa is wrong. The result of the political upheavals is regression, not progression. NATO needs to come to terms with reality for the alliance to find the right approach in the post ‘Arab Spring’ environment.
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Gautier Uchiyama: About one year after the Arab Spring, North Africa is living its first steps toward democracy and the rule of law. But there is fourth common misinterpretation or misconception about the last spring riots that must be corrected.
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Dmitriy Burov: The 2011 Arab spring engendered a hotbed of instability in the region. NATO, as an effective political organization, has huge potential for bringing peace and order to the Middle East and North Africa through initiating a number of the steps listed below.
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Karen Joy Harriger : In order for NATO to support the transition process in its Mediterranean Dialogue partner countries, its methods must focus on both encouraging the development of civil-military governments and ensuring that these governments grow in strength over time.
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Julian Christopher Fuchs: For its future Middle East strategy, NATO needs to work together with the Arab militaries as the most decisive and responsive actors in the (post-) revolutionary setting and employ a policy of effective conditionality, thus facilitating a lasting democratic transition and stability.
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Costinel Anuta: Even though the title seems paradoxical, since Libya is not (yet) a member of the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD), a successful aftermath of the Operation Unified Protector is the key for the MD future. Failure in Libya would hurt NATO“s agenda in the entire region.
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Keri Elise Majikes: Arguing that NATO should selflessly help the Arab world transition to democratic governments through political or military programs is not only unrealistic, it’s unsustainable. Instead of trying to encourage altruistic programs to artificially create a democratic environment, NATO should focus
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Editorial Team: Why doesn’t NATO have a good slogan? The NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy answers this and more in a final set of your questions, including answers about post-Cold War relevance and the strength of the Article 5 guarantee.
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Stephan Vormann: Due to the finiteness of fossil fuels, the development of a low-carbon industry has become an economic necessity. A new approach to energy security that goes beyond NATO’s current “safeguard foreign energy supply” is in dire need. A focus on secure energy after “the age of oil” is therefore in.
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Editorial Team: The NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy returns to answer more of your questions! In this next round he discusses NATO’s role in Central Asia, the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, and reaching out to Brazil, among other issues.
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Memo 38: To encourage ownership and identification among its Member states and their publics, NATO should become more transparent and support stronger engagement between citizens. It can accomplish this by better defining Member contributions, making its internal processes more open, and initiating participatory programs like military exchanges and a cyber awareness campaign.
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Editorial Team: The NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy has responded to your questions and policy recommendations! In this second installment, he discusses NATO’s stance in Asia and how new powers like China and India impact the Alliance’s goals.
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Editorial Team: The NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy has responded to your questions and policy recommendations! In this first of two installments, he answers questions about cooperation with countries touched by the Arab Spring, discusses an Atlantic Memo proposal for a Global Partnership Council, and many more.
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Niklas Anzinger: Turkey’s success story of combining moderate Islam and democracy is being challenged by the ruling AK Party’s power grab. In this game, the struggle for power trumps ideology, but the religious resurgence remains an element of unpredictability in foreign policy. Regarding Syria, reality mugged the ill-guided Middle Eastern adventures of Turkey.
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Costinel Anuta: Communication with the allied publics is no longer enough. A shift toward communion is needed, and communion is firstly about involvement. Therefore, by adopting and implementing a concept like the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), NATO could turn “they” into “we”.
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Megan Ann Reiss: Through developing a strategic advertising campaign, NATO can instill ownership among its citizens and assure a strong future for the alliance. NATO must remind them of their shared values, advocate for diplomatic influence in decision making, and highlight the economic value of the organization.
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Stephanie Theresa Baulig: In order to promote NATO values there should be a mandatory experience for all soldiers in a NATO academy, including language programs to foster understanding. If we start this now among the next generation of military leaders, we can begin building our common identity today.
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Daryl Morini: Today’s NATO suffers from a public diplomacy overload rather than an image problem. Far from being a panacea to its democratic deficit, the dominant influence of public diplomacy strategies and their advocates on Allied decision-making is arguably part of the problem.
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Andrew Barr: Quantifying state involvement in NATO through the establishment of a “points system” is a necessary step towards quelling the discord from ambiguities in measuring participation. In addition, military, civilian and academic exchanges will augment a sense of community within NATO.
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Editorial Team: In the first theme week from our current policy workshop, we focus on building the feeling of community among NATO members and increasing identification with this “unique community of values.” How does NATO need to change to better connect with its publics? Read the top ideas from our young writers!
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Ian Clarke Hansen: The best way to promote a communal NATO is to provide a meaningful purpose that draws upon transnational concerns and interests. The clearest and most deserving case for this is establishing a timeline of admittance for the Republic of Georgia.
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Jelena Petrovic: NATO can Increase its cohesion by using a multilevel approach to building its community. They should focus on a common denominator of threat, investment in wide institutions, and bringing the NATO organization closer to its Member States’ peoples.
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S Williams: In order to improve its public approval in Russia, NATO must analyze anti-NATO sentiment, specifically amongst youths, and identify possible methods of remediation.
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Anita Rebecca Sundarajan: A new division of labor as seen in Operation Unified Protector will allow the alliance to take on increased responsibilities in the peacekeeping arena because the U.S. is no longer forced to assume the majority of the risks, costs, and burdens associated with wars of choice.
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Aliya Beisenbekovna Mussabekova: Kazakhstan and NATO need a more profound exchange of values and ideas. This is importannt today because the generation of young people who had never lived under Soviet rule has already grown up. The first challenge we should address is the information barrier.
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Milda Leonaviciute: The ambition to reset relations with Russia is made by a NATO administration that has forgotten its values. There is increased disunity among NATO members, and NATO needs to demonstrate it will protect and cooperate with its own people, particularly in the Baltic states.
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Hristijan Ivanovski: While recent initiatives of GenSec Anders Fogh Rasmussen and his team have brought about highly demanded leadership action, they have done little to “sell” the Atlantic values more widely and regenerate the fabric of the transatlantic community. Steps are required beyond public diplomacy.
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René van Eijk: In order to restore the relationship between the public and NATO, politicians of the member states should communicate to their citizens the continuous relevance of NATO by pointing out the original purpose of the organization and the new threats that lie ahead in the 21st century.
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Richmond Paul Blake: To restore transatlantic trust and to build institutional confidence, NATO must launch a bold social media-focused public diplomacy campaign to reach member state populations, not just diplomatic elites.
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Aleksandr Blagin: NATO is one of the most powerful organizations in the world and a big family for many nations. But there are internal problems of identification too that could be resolved through closer cooperation , better media representation, and a new common image.
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Ian Andrews: To alleviate its internal discord, NATO must refocus its priorities on security issues that are inherently collective instead of pursuing collective security for its own sake. In this piece, humanitarian aid missions and extended deterrence are used as two supporting examples.
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Robert James Hurd: NATO should rejuvenate a fraying alliance dominated by language of “they” rather than “we,” by spreading the burden out, bringing new ideas in, and helping the developing world advance.
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Nargiz Guliyeva: The US global security perspective is competing with the European domestic security vision. This is accentuating the “we” and “they” approach within the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization. Establishing short-term goals, strengthening financial security and empowering public diplomacy will reduce these “transatlantic differences”.
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Gerald Gugerty: It has become increasingly evident that security, economic prosperity, and environmental stewardship are inextricably linked to one another, and a solution to one cannot ignore the other two. NATO should take an active role in finding solutions to these problems in order to develop a vital community.
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Louise Fahey: The end of the Cold War left NATO members without a common enemy, and in turn without a common interest. Instead of establishing a new consolidated threat to bring the Alliance closer, NATO must establish a policy of flexibility that enables it to adapt to threats, and also encourage common action.
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Seven Erdogan: A powerful NATO with more saying in world peace is only possible by creating an alliance that is close to people. In order to achieve a closer community it must soften its image as an alliance acting on the basis of decisions taken by heads of state through an effective communication campaign.
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Tilman Pradt: The future threats to NATO member states are no longer located in Europe and are non-traditional in nature. To revive support from and acceptance among its member states, NATO must address these new realities. Securing the waters of the Arabian Sea will serve these goals.
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Michael Miner: Whilst transformative events have led the Alliance into divergent paths, the core principles have not lost their value in entirety. NATO should establish continental force integration and exchange partnerships to reestablish these common bonds.
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Thomas C Meyer: NATO can only build an internal community by emphasizing the role of day-to-day operational communities consisting of military personnel, foreign offices, development agencies, civil society groups, and private sector partners in addressing security.
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Yoonj Kim: To build strong community between NATO, its member states, and its citizens, a recognized public forum must emerge for people to make their voices heard directly. NATO “storytellers” would share their experiences of the organization in an accessible and relatable way.
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Marielle Catherine Ness: NATO can encourage ownership and identification among member nations and their publics through a targeted assortment of youth programs that reach out to both military and civilian audiences. This includes an expansion of NATO education initiatives, cadet exchanges and model NATO.
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Daniel Richard Green: To overcome misconceptions among Europeans and Americans regarding NATO and its role in the world, the Alliance should begin a concerted public relations and education campaign that shows NATO as a community of nations with commonly-held values and ideals.
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Balazs Gabor Kos: NATO’s New Strategic Concept outlines the aims of the leaders of MS regarding, terrorism, nuclear weapons and energy security, what it lacks is the involvement of the people. The Secretary-General should act as a unifying figure across member states and people could participate in petitions to raise awareness of common NATO issues.
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Ned Shell: There are two channels through which NATO can turn “they” into “we.” One involves improving communication, the other involves tangible programming. This piece discusses how both can be utilized by NATO leadership to ensure the alliance continues to flourish for years to come.
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Julika Peschau: I advocate joint NATO youth camps and NATO based summer schools for adolescents of NATO member countries and its partners in Eastern Europe. NATO will find it easier to expand democratic values and its other normative values in former authoritarian regimes by getting in touch with future generations.
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Edward Andrew Grodin: NATO must connect with its public in a more concrete and meaningful way. A policy of “strategic engagement” whereby NATO enhances its grant-making activities can provide the impetus for long-term interactions between the organization and individuals.
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Tornike Metreveli: NATO is suffering a lack of consensus on transatlantic burden sharing issues and regional interests. NATO should engage more actively in youth policies in order to shift the persisting attitude of alienation felt among the NATO partners.
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Christopher Euan Whyte: The diffusion of interests since the end of the Cold War have led to the stagnation of values-based internationalism in NATO. An introduction of multilateral educational initiatives across the alliance could bring a much-needed return to the norm of collective responsibility.
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Abdulhakim Altunkaya: NATO must be establish a firm set of political values and legal texts that encourage ownership and common identification with NATO. In doing this the organization will avoid the dangerous differentiation of foreign policies between states that could divide it.
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Nikola Duric: The sharing of responsibility through redefining the share of financing inside NATO would lead towards an internalization of the NATO idea in the general public of member states. It would promote inter-governmental cooperation and reverse the alienation process between NATO and the citizens of member countries.
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Tonka Kostadinova: Group identities and collective cultures are constructed and this article offers one potential approach to the development of a common transatlantic culture in terms of shared values, principles and democratic norms.
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Samantha Elizabeth Koss: The solution to the continental divisions between NATO members lies in enlarging membership and refocusing the identity and NATO’s mission. NATO should aim for the security and promotion of values of all democracies worldwide, not limited to those within the transatlantic alliance.
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Joshua Daniel Shainess: The global recession should be viewed as an opportunity to renew a sense of unified identity among NATO member states. By promoting vibrant economies among its member states and avoiding unnecessary commitments NATO will restore its sense of shared community.
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Greg Randolph Lawson: In the wake of a rapidly shifting global order, the United States and Europe, the pillars of transatlanticism, must reinvigorate their cultural connections and embrace a robust free trade agenda to remain competitive. They must hang together or they will hang separately.
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Scott Atherley: Lack of competition has fragmented essential elements of the NATO consensus. NATO must re-emphasize a defensive role, abandon aggressive action, and embrace a broader pool of nations to return focus to the protection of liberalism as it is broadly understood.
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Editorial Team: Join Atlantic Community for our first Question & Answer session of 2012. NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy James Appathurai will be taking your questions on NATO partnerships and regional initiatives, and answering in a video response.
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Kristin Durant: Most important for the transatlantic relationship is the education and engagement of younger populations in debates which will affect their future. This must involve an identification with each other beyond the political constructs and a recognition of common transatlantic values.
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Joshua Clapp: In conjunction with the “Your Ideas Your NATO” competition, we are providing an overview of the three categories of the contest: Values and Community, Partnerships after the Arab Spring, and Smart Defense. The readings below can help you get started on understanding the issues and making your own policy recommendations.
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Jason Naselli: Demands that Iran (or anyone else) not seek nuclear weapons are hard to swallow while the US clings to so many. The only real solution for solving problems like Iranian proliferation is a legitimate nuclear regime that treats all countries equally. This means getting more serious about disarmament.
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NATO: One of the main topics at the Munich Security Conference was America’s defense review and changes to the US military presence in Europe. Political leaders and experts from around the world discussed what this means for international security and the transatlantic partnership.
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Editorial Team: We’re excited to reveal the results of our latest members’ poll and inform you of what our priorities will be in 2012. As well as displaying your decisions on the most important issues of 2012, we’re also announcing our first theme week and what we plan to do with the topics you requested throughout the rest of the year.
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Mathew Shearman: Alongside the launch of the “Your Ideas Your NATO” competition we are previewing the NATO Chicago Summit in May. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Chicago agenda will be focused on Afghanistan, smart defense, developing partnerships, and strengthening common NATO values.
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atlantic-community.org: We are excited to announce our newest policy workshop! We want you to tell us your ideas for promoting NATO values, building partnerships, and engaging members in the Smart Defense initiative. Winners receive a cash prize and a trip to Berlin to present their ideas to policymakers!
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Policy Workshop Competition: We are excited to announce our newest policy workshop! We want you to tell us your ideas for promoting NATO values, building partnerships, and engaging members in the Smart Defense initiative. Winners receive a cash prize and a trip to Berlin to present their ideas to policymakers!
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Tomas Teleky: As the 2012 NATO Summit in Chicago approaches, NATO has a full current agenda that includes both tackling new threats and learning from its recent major operations. Ten years after its mission in Afghanistan began, NATO must apply the experience to its newest initiatives and use its lessons to inform the Alliance’s current priorities.
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Yurter Ozcan: The Turkish government uses an often negative rhetoric vis-à-vis Turkey’s NATO membership that correlates with public opinion towards the United States. Yet these trends are at odds with the major decisions that the governing party has made, which instead point towards a growing cooperation with NATO partners.
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Editorial Team: Elections and transfers of power look set to dominate world events in 2012. Will Chinese leadership adopt a more aggressive stance? Will Egypt develop into an Islamist regime? Here is a brief look at these and other events likely to shape the new year. Feel free to share any events you think will also be important.
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General Karimi: Transition is on track. We are confident that the end of 2014 goal for its completion will be met. Today, already 80% of security operations in Afghanistan are led by Afghan National Security Forces, with ISAF enabling support. Transition must be seen as a comprehensive process, not a one-off event.
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Editorial Team: NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation General Stéphane Abrial has responded to your questions and policy recommendations! In the second installment of his answers, the general discusses maritime strategy and global governance, cultural obstacles to integration, and the role of strategic communications in NATO operations.
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Shafiq Hamdam: As an Afghan citizen I am grateful to NATO for the huge improvements in security, economic development, governance, democracy and human rights in the last ten years. Do you think the investment was worth the human and financial costs? Is the world safer compared to 2001? Here are twelve reasons why my answer is “Yes!” What is your answer?
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Jason Naselli: Could the structures of ISAF be transformed into a peacebuilding force for missions in other conflict zones when it leaves Afghanistan? Proponents say it could harness the operational ties forged over the past 10 years into an effective solution for peacekeeping and global governance problems, but detractors say it is unfeasible and unwise.
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Editorial Team: General Stéphane Abrial has responded to your questions and policy recommendations! In this first of two installments, the general tackles questions on the ideas, implementation, and transparency of “Smart Defense”. He also offers his thoughts on a recent Atlantic Memo.
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Kara Kingma: The recent NATO attack reiterates the need to assess the alliance between the United States and Pakistan. Pakistan’s cooperation does not guarantee success in Afghanistan; rather, the US partnership with the Pakistani military alienates Pakistan’s citizens and prevents needed domestic reforms.
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Stanislav Maselnik: Putin’s Eurasian Union is a sound initiative of regional integration and need not present competition to the EU and its allies. In contrast, it can serve EU and US interests by bringing a stabilizing force to the region and creating a strong ally to balance against the rising power of China.
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Editorial Team: Atlantic Community articles aren’t the whole story. Member comments can have just as many interesting ideas. This month, our latest Atlantic Memo comes from a discussion on scrapping the CSDP, passions flared over stopping Iran’s nuclear program, and we debated international piracy and the impact of the European far right.
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Memo 35: The EU must restructure its Common Security and Defence Policy based on economic and operational realities. It should emphasize narrow, logistically feasible operations over broad outlines, clearly delineate its partnership with NATO, and take a longer term view when developing operational strategies.
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Jordan Becker: The European security community must decide whether they want to exist as one part of an overall transatlantic security identity or to project power independent of NATO. Further EU defense integration can only occur when these two notions have been reconciled.
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Editorial Team: Join Atlantic Community for our next Q&A with General Stéphane Abrial, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation. We invite you to ask questions about NATO’s ongoing efforts to implement “Smart Defense” and share your own thoughts on how to handle transformation in the 21st century.
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Jordan Becker: The US focus on Asia is an affirmation of the progress made over the past 65 years in Europe. Rather than worrying about abandonment, Europe should now seek to reinvest in its own independent regional security and strive to be a strong partner in the global projection of transatlantic power.
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Chris Ogden: The European Union and the United States share a myriad of interests in the Asia-Pacific, from global governance concerns to engagements on free trade, and, despite the US’s geographic claim, they face the same challenges as outsiders. In a region where bilateral strategic partnerships are essential, the most important one may be between the US and Europe.
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NATO: The Alliance’s job to protect civilians from the threat of attack is done. Surrounded by the devastation that Qadhafi’s troops caused, residents and fighters of the city of Misrata declare their own end to the revolution by celebrating with a victory parade. They promise to hand in their weapons and rebuild their city.
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Olga Kolesnichenko: While many lament the growing military capability gap between Europe and the US within NATO, new tracks of partnership, emphasizing specialization and compatibility, have the potential to fundamentally reshape NATO’s organizational structure without compromising security.
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Felix F. Seidler: The EU has proven it is not a credible player in international security; the CSDP is merely a prestige project that has gone nowhere. Despite lower budgets, NATO still has the means to tackle current threats, and EU defense spending should be concentrated there.
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Editorial Team: Great policy ideas are collaborative, and member comments are a key part of our think tank. Here are some of the best comment debates from the past month, including discussions about Iran’s nuclear intentions, what Libya means to NATO, strategies for better engagement with Russia, and the possibilities of a Eurasian Union.
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NATO: Since the cyber attacks against NATO member Estonia in 2007, cyber threats have rapidly evolved in frequency and sophistication. The development and use of cyber tools can threaten and destabilize national and Euro-Atlantic security and stability. NATO is advancing its efforts to confront the wide range of cyber threats targeting the Alliance’s networks on a daily basis.
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Editorial Team: Jamie Shea, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, has answered your questions! Read his responses on a range of topics including cyber security, counter-terrorism, and NATO’s role in combating future non-military security challenges.
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Ian Lesser: Critiques of Europe’s defense spending and crisis response ability miss the point. In order to prosper strategically in the future, shaping the strategic environment through EU expansion, global partnerships and a coherent Mediterranean policy will be far more important.
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Jason Naselli: Arguments that NATO is outdated or reaching its end are flawed because they incorrectly view it as a conventional military alliance, say a number of new books. Recent scholarship instead has looked at NATO as an international institution, and predicts a much brighter future.
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Elena Georgievna Ponomareva: While the West has been quick to cast Putin’s Eurasian project as a throwback to the Soviet Union, the prospect of functioning Eurasian Union bodes well for security and prosperity in the post-Soviet space and could undermine Western global hegemony.
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NATO: Controlling what people heard, watched and read was key for Qadhafi to keep control over the Libyan people. Now, with the regime gone, Libya Al Hurra TV is playing a big part in the new free media.
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Ira Louis Straus: Despite the constant barrage of anti-NATO rhetoric among Western media and politicians, the alliance has once again scored a victory in Libya. It now needs to learn the lessons of victory and consolidate the gains it has made, both among its members and in the Arab world.
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Editorial Team: Join us for a Q&A session with Dr. Jamie Shea, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges. Dr. Shea will respond to your questions about how NATO deals with cyber defence, terrorism, the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, and energy security.
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NATO: The transatlantic relationship has been the bedrock of NATO for over 60 years, but is it now changing? Is the US going off in new directions which will make it look more to Asia and less to Europe?
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Richard Gowan: It seems all too possible that the US and EU’s contrasting strategic concerns will continue to dilute their military cooperation in the years ahead. The hunt is still on for a convincing vision of how to avoid this outcome.
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Olaf Theiler: September 11th, 2001 has often been called the day that changed everything. This might not be true for our day to day life, but in security, it really marked a new era. Together with the Twin Towers, our traditional perceptions of threats collapsed. The Cold War scenario that had dominated for over 50 years was radically and irrevocably altered.
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Asle Toje: Recent events in the Middle East have highlighted the EU’s inability to develop a strong common defense and security policy. The EU has the interests and aspirations of a global power, but the capacity and mindset of a mid-level player. Europe needs more cooperation and integration on security and foreign policy.
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Editorial Team: Drastic cuts to defense spending put Europe’s security at risk. As budgets bend to economic pressure, defense ministries urgently need to reform in order to cut waste, improve capability and maintain security. What can European states do to make defense spending more efficient?
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Andrew M Dorman: Europe’s inability to agree on fundamental issues - its future, its allies, its foes - is exacerbating the effects of defense spending cuts across continent. European states can stave off decline by maintaining security collectively, but a drawback in their global involvement now looks inevitable.
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Nikolas Kirrill Gvosdev: The idea of intra-alliance military specialization in Europe is attractive in theory, but problematic in practice. Instead, officials should pursue a two-tiered pan-European defense force, which would facilitate deployment beyond Europe and improve effeciency using economies of scale.
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Aleksandr Blagin: To improve its collective defense capabilities and reduce wasteful spending, Europe should pursue three paths: refuse expensive overseas expeditions, use diplomatic policy and economic sanctions before using force, and develop new partnerships in conflict-prone regions.
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Stefanie Babst: NATO has embraced the power of social media. The Alliance engages thousands in discussions on defense and security and these open, online debates have already borne fruit. Transatlantic policy is no longer the realm of an isolated elite: all citizens now have a chance to make an impact.
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NATO: Robert Pszczel is the Alliance’s face in Russia. The head of NATO’s Moscow office, he now both talks about - and listens to opinions on - NATO’s evolving partnership with Russia. Here he explains some of the feedback - and why it’s positive to be an optimist.
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Memo 33: To remain effective in a multi-polar world, NATO should strengthen its collaborative ties with Asia. The Alliance must strive to make China more partner than rival, develop a multilateral plan for stability in Central Asia and Afghanistan, and strengthen existing regional partnerships.
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Greg Randolph Lawson: The world does not need relics of a bygone era. It needs a robust security architecture capable of confronting the unique circumstances of different regions in ways most suitable to each. It is time to embrace a security architecture based on regionalism, not pretensions to universalism.
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James Brian Taylor: Turkey’s relations with the United States and Europe have been strained over the past two years, despite a rich history of cooperation. But the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East provides a golden opportunity for Turkey to realign itself with the US and Europe, beginning with a reconciliation with Israel.
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Editorial Team: Our latest theme week seeks solutions to Europe’s most pressing security question: in a difficult economic climate, how can European defense ministries get more bang for their buck? We encourage all Atlantic Community members to contribute opinion articles to stimulate this important debate.
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Joerg Wolf & Victoria Naselskaya: Russia’s strategic community strongly supports Moscow’s cooperation with NATO in Afghanistan and considers missile defense the cornerstone of NATO-Russia relations. While the experts are surprisingly optimistic regarding the success of this ambitious project, they are also concerned by the lack of trust and equality in the partnership.
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Andrew Haworth: This thesis argues that the Nixon administration between 1969 and 1971 used delay tactics at home and abroad to satisfy its aim of postponing the Conference on European Security (CSCE) and Mutual Balance Force Reductions (MBFR).
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Gábor Iklódy: NATO’s new Emerging Security Challenges Division (ESCD) sends a strong political message and systematically brings together work on the areas that will increasingly affect the security of the Allies on both sides of the Atlantic: terrorism, cyber attacks, threats to energy supply, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
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Tom Koenigs: We need a civilian development strategy that does not require the presence of foreign troops. Each project must be able to function without international assistance. Projects must be smaller, be less “hard” (infrastructure, economic development), and be “softer” (e.g., education, supporting civil society).
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Karl-Heinz Kamp: For decades, NATO favored stability over freedom in the Arab world. Now, the Alliance should support its partner countries with expertise to make their armed forces more effective in a democratic environment, especially in human rights training, international law, defense planning and border security.
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NATO Review: NATO’s Chuck Parker saw the impact of light weapons first hand when serving in Vietnam. Today, he is one of the people trying to prevent the same misuse and mishandling of the weapons that continues today.
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Simon James Anglim: The study of Special Forces has largely been neglected in academic literature, but they remain among the most effective military tools available. Modern armies should continue investing in Special Forces to carry out tactical missions that conventional military units are ill-suited to perform.
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NATO Review: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is changing the way it works with its partners. Ambassador Dirk Brengelmann, Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, explains what these changes mean to both sides.
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Felix F. Seidler: Despite financial constraints, the transatlantic partners must tackle the 21st century’s challenges together. However, the allies will be unable to pursue their interests on the global commons without new partners. Therefore, NATO should push cooperation with global partners who share our values.
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Soeren Keil: It seems as if Merkel is more interested in what is good for Germany in the short-term than what is good for the EU and consequently Germany in the long-term.
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Nick Witney at the Boell Foundation: While the United States will have to focuse on the Pacific, Europe should engage on its own account with Russia and Turkey in the management of its neighborhood. The relationship with the US is set to remain a genuine partnership and Europe should conduct it on a more balanced, transatlantic, unified European basis.
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Vasco Martins: This article proposes four interlinked hypothesis to explain the immense geopolitical benefits of recognizing Abkhazia, while understanding that certain ‘hard-line’ factions within the Russian government might have planned the outcome of the conflict.
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Anders Fogh Rasmussen: The international community has to ensure that the Arab Spring does not turn into a bleak winter. In Libya the question is not if Qadhafi goes, but when. NATO can help North Africa and the Middle East with its democratic transition - complementing support from other international actors, particularly the European Union and the United Nations.
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Editorial Team: “Every day, millions of refugees face murder, rape and terror,” says the UNHCR. Today is World Refugee Day, aimed at increasing awareness about the forcibly displaced worldwide. To commemorate this occasion we are asking you to join the debate on the growing Mediterranean refugee crisis.
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Joerg Wolf & Elias Gladstone: Despite significant popular opposition to the Afghanistan war, most European NATO member states continue to send troops into harms way. The US media and strategic community, however, often downplays Europe’s role in the country, case in point Professor Russell Berman from the Hoover Institution.
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Memo 32: NATO member states must integrate a gender perspective in agreements which establish the foundations for stable peace, as envisaged in UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325.
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Sascha Lohmann: Social media fundamentally transformed the way in which public diplomacy is conducted. Whereas elected governments can advance their objectives through the use of social media, the prospects for international organizations remain vague as they are accountable solely to their member states.
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Memo 31: The West should secure a positive legacy to its Afghanistan mission before the transition of responsibility in 2014 by strengthening the rule of law, promoting female education, smarter energy solutions and solidifying Afghan sovereignty.
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Editorial Team: It is with great pleasure that we are announcing the winners of our op-ed competition sponsored by the United States Mission to NATO and the NATO Public Diplomacy Division. We received over 100 submissions, many of such a high standard that they were used to produce two Atlantic Memos. These memos showcase the best ideas and solutions from our Open Think Tank and are distributed to decision-makers as executive summaries.
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Ira Louis Straus: On top of the transatlantic agenda should be the goal of deepening the transatlantic community on all levels, from the institutional rung of the ladder, to the identity-loyalty rung, to the membership rung.
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Editorial Team: Our Open Think Tank is devoted to promoting women voices in the transatlantic security debate. The op-ed competition in celebration of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and the 10th anniversary of UN Resolution 1325 seeks to empower women in peace and security.
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Siri Bjorntvedt: By offering conditional membership to Georgia, NATO will help to stabilize the region and improve the democratic credentials of both partners. This will also help Georgia improve its relations with Russia, subsequently making another war much less likely.
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Jeremy Wysakowski-Walters: Polish strategic thinking can only be understood within a social-constructivist framework. This paper looks at Polish foreign policy, with especial regard to US/Polish relations.
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Felix F. Seidler: Germany has to leave its abstention approach. Commenting with upraised forefinger causes only further damages on relations its partners. Now Berlin has to engage actively for NATO´s success in Libya. Concrete engagement is the only way to heal alliance solidarity´s wounds.
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Aigerim Shilibekova: In order to build more constructive cooperation with Central Asia, NATO must understand the perceptions from the region. NATO can implement efficient soft power policies, but any coordination needs to benefit both sides.
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Anders Fogh Rasmussen: NATO Allies have now decided to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya. We are taking action as part of the broad international effort to protect civilians against the attacks by the Gaddafi regime. We will cooperate with our partners in the region and welcome their contributions.
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Julia Ulrike Schramm: NATO needs renewed legitimacy in order to face emerging global threats and problems. This will require a complete restructuring, and new treaty, but also the cooperation of BRIC and other states will be necessary to create a more effective organization.
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Celine Touboul: Before deciding on whether to engage militarily in Libya, NATO should define the strategic objective of such mission, as they may not be consistent with the purpose of the organization. It should also carefully weigh the risks of escalation and failure of such intervention.
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Rachel J Emery: Many academics and journalists have put forth their own views on the future direction of NATO. However, what stills needs to be taken into account is that expansion of the Alliance’s scope beyond the immediate Euro-Atlantic area is not necessary in the current post Cold War security environment
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Sarah Redohl: In the wake of uprisings in North Africa, NATO may be forced to make a choice between much-needed reform or stable dictatorships. With a hefty aim to be the world guarantor of security by 2020, NATO will need to reconsider its newest partnerships, beyond the interest of its allies, and start guaranteeing actual security.
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Claudia Bernasconi: NATO’s success in combating terrorism thus far should not be overstated. Given the asymmetric nature of terrorism, a major military alliance focused on state based conflict may not be suited for this particular threat to international security.
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Alexandra Jonas: Policymakers should take a closer look at the drafting process of developing NATO’s strategic concept. Introducing transparency, communication and consensus building into drafting strategy will only serve to create more credible and effective policy.
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NATO: A 50-minute documentary film chronicling events and views in today’s Afghanistan from the people whose voices are too little heard these days: Afghans. It reaches across the generations to hear a wide variety of views from the people on whose behalf soldiers from NATO and beyond are fighting. They shine a light on complex issues.
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Elizabeth Royall: President Barack Obama and the NATO community must strengthen their resolve to South Asia and communicate their commitment to Afghanistan and its neighbors; otherwise, the regional players will continue to hedge their bets and problems will remain intractable. Guarantees on short term policy in Afghanistan need to be given to ensure future stability.
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NATO: For the first time, NATO commanders have access to technology which can protect deployed forces from ballistic missile attacks in the field of battle. This interim capability will be further expanded to form the cornerstone of a future missile defense system.
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NATO Review: Climate change, food security and population growth could form the perfect storm. The global population is likely to rise from 7 billion this year to 9 billion by 2050. Yet, at the same time as having more mouths to feed, the world faces having less water and cultivable land. What will this mean for our security?
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Editorial Team: We would like to thank you for voting in our recent survey on transatlantic priorities. Three key issues which Atlantic Community members would like to focus on in the year ahead are China, the debt threat and climate change. These results as well as your suggestions will guide our thematic focus in 2011.
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NATO: Important challenges remain, yet Bosnia and Herzegovina has made a remarkable turnaround in the 15 years, since NATO deployed its first-ever peacekeeping force there in December 1995 to implement the military aspects of the Dayton Peace Agreement.
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Niklas Anzinger: Turkey’s leading political party is shifting away from its Western orientation. This is a consequential step of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s agenda of de-secularizing Turkish democracy. Ankara’s reorientation remains an obstacle not only to Western influence in the Middle East but also a NATO missile defense shield.
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Felix F. Seidler: After its recent summit, NATO needs a plan for the implementation of its new strategic concept. The alliance cannot afford the achievements of the summit to fizzle out. Tax payers should demand that the pretensions of “active engagement” and “modern defence” be underlined by concrete actions.
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Niall Mulchinock: Recent belligerent actions on the Korean peninsula are the result of the ongoing succession process in Pyongyang. Kim Jong-il is trying to to give his inexperienced son some credence. In response, the US and its allies need to begin to put real pressure on China regarding this issue and NATO needs to deepen its partnership with the Republic of Korea.
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Editorial Team: Atlantic Community members have discussed, made suggestions and contributed to the debate around NATO’s much awaited New Strategic Concept. We have already presented an Atlantic Memo to the Alliance and are currently involved in a Policy Workshop on Russian-Western Relations.
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Philipp Johannes Große: The West needs to promote accountability and the rule of law in Russia. Focus should be on reaching out to the general population, not self-declared elites. Germany’s position should be firmly rooted in the West, not midway between Paris and Moscow.
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Hans Binnendijk and Richard Kugler: NATO’s European allies are set to make swingeing cuts in their defence budgets. The following is an 8-point plan for ensuring that austerity policies do not weaken NATO and endanger transatlantic relations.
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Birgit Hütten: A group of NATO experts has listed Asia as a potential future threat zone with problems such as WMD, terrorist attacks, cyber assaults and illegal disruption of energy and maritime supply links. These challenges can be dealt with by enhancing existing partnerships.
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Editorial Team: We are launching a new op-ed competition to celebrate the 10th anniversary of UN Resolution 1325 and to contribute to the implementation of its goal of empowering women in peace and security.
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Editorial Team: Across Europe, governments are being forced to rationalize spending on their militaries in what is fast becoming an age of austerity. Aside from changing the fundamental make-up of Europe’s armed forces, this will have wider implications for the transatlantic security agenda.
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Christopher Lee Davis: The following analysis provides an assessment of the current capabilities as well as recommendations to improve the efficiency and credibility of the NATO Alliance. Short term answers are no longer sufficient; the Alliance must plan for the future and take the necessary measures to remain relevant.
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UPDATE from Ambassador Sedwill: NATO’s Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan Mark Sedwill responds to questions and comments from Atlantic Community’s members regarding the outcomes of the International Conference on Afghanistan and related issues.
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Lidija Levkovska: Unless burden sharing is adequately addressed in NATO, countries that contribute more may well demand greater influence. If this becomes the case, the primary security challenge for the Alliance will come from NATO’s own backyard.
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Jiri Sedivy: NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning comments on our recommendations for the Alliance’s new Strategic Concept. He very much appreciates “not only the memorandum, but also — and at least as much as it — the process, the work behind the final paper. This has been a really open and participatory deliberation.”
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Jorge Benitez: Looming downward pressure on defense budgets could actually bring NATO member states closer together in appreciation of the value of joint defense. Greater Anglo-German cooperation should also be on the cards.
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Memo 25: Focusing on the core mission, strengthening global partnerships, and launching broad public diplomacy initiatives are atlantic-community.org’s top three recommendations for NATO’s new Strategic Concept.
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Stefanie Babst: Although a considerable degree of trust and confidence still exists for NATO, many people have difficulties relating it to the new security threats. In particular, the post-Cold War generation only has foggy ideas of NATO’s new missions and policies. In response, NATO is pursuing more open and transparent public diplomacy.
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Editorial Team: 17 members of atlantic-community.org participated in a Skype Strategy Session to debate each others’ recommendations for NATO’s New Strategic Concept. A consensus has begun to form around three key issues, which will be featured in the next Atlantic Memo. But there is more work to be done. Please contribute to the working draft!
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Greg Randolph Lawson: Rather than aiming to become a global constabulary force, NATO should retain its historical focus on intra-European stability and allow other regional multilateral institutions to take on their own roles in their own neighborhoods.
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C. Mazzucelli & O. Dursun-Özkanca: The new Strategic Concept should emphasize the Alliance’s role in crisis management, as the floods in Pakistan have demonstrated that NATO’s response is inadequate. The US, Turkey, and France, which make up NATO’s Strategic Triangle, must take the lead in shaping the Alliance’s emergency relief strategy.
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Felix F. Seidler: Challenges in today’s security environment do not limit themselves to the North Atlantic region. NATO’s new Strategic Concept must strengthen the mechanisms for formering global partnerships. A global partnership council should be created to increase global cooperation in Alliance activities.
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Walter L. Christman: NATO’s new Strategic Concept risks “pouring new wine into old wineskins” if it updates the concept of Partnership without reinvigorating the tools to accompany it. Several approaches developed together with the 1999 Strategic Concept should be revitalized for more global application.
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Luca Ratti: NATO’s planners should focus upon retaining cohesion among Cold War and post-Cold War members, as well as designing effective solutions to engage new partners, old enemies, and emerging powers. The Strategic Concept must prioritize cohesion and clarity, rather than spelling out new threats facing the Alliance.
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Youth Atlantic Treaty Association: NATO’s new Strategic Concept must concentrate on improving relations with rising world powers, developing new policies for interorganizational cooperation and out-of-area engagements, securing an international missile defense system and expanding the nuclear sharing arrangement, and reforming the burden sharing concept.
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Jerzy S Deren: Member states must be able to reach operational capability target goals in order for the Alliance to meet the security obligations that will be outlined in the new Strategic Concept. Standardization and interoperability are key to NATO force planning. Defense priorities must not promise more than capabilities can deliver.
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Olga Kolesnichenko: NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has a clear vision for transforming the organization into a modern Alliance. Though the new Strategic Concept will only be revealed in November at Lisbon, an analysis of Rasmussen’s first-year speeches provides a detailed outline of the strategies and values that will be found in the document.
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Jasur Sumerinli Mammadov: NATO’s new Strategic Concept must address its relations with the South Caucasus region, which holds a place of particular geopolitical importance. A special partnership with Azerbaijan, the mediation of frozen conflicts, and a “safety zone” that deepens cooperation between NATO and non-member states are all crucial steps forward.
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Ian Davis: NATO’s new Strategic Concept should make a political commitment to investigate allegations of WMD use by members of the Alliance, refocus the Response Force toward humanitarian missions and establish a common helicopter pool, and require parliamentary ratification by all 28 member states.
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Daniel Nikolits: When looking at the twenty-first century’s global security challenges, there is more that unites NATO and Russia than divides them. The next Strategic Concept must aim to strengthen the partnership with Russia for the benefit of both sides.
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Klaus Spiessberger: NATO’s new Strategic Concept should give priority to three key areas of activity: the strengthening of public diplomacy initiatives, the further development of a modern, flexible Response Force, and the improvement in relations with Russia, with membership as a future consideration.
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Dzintars Kalnins: The events of September 11, 2001 changed NATO’s identity by providing the Alliance with a new enemy image. The result provides a case study of how the terrorist challenge brought about an identity change in an international organization.
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Stephen Szabo: Europe is proving a foreign policy disappointment to the Obama Administration as it struggles to propound a clearer strategy toward Russia. Washington now recognises that only Berlin has the key to a new relationship with Moscow.
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UPDATE from Ambassador Sedwill: NATO’s Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan Mark Sedwill has answered your questions. Please find below the open dialogue between the Ambassador and members of atlantic-community.org.
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Stanley R. Sloan: For NATO to survive, the US must be convinced that political and military cooperation with the Europeans contributes to its security. Meanwhile, it is important for the Europeans to feel that their contribution to US efforts gives them some say in US security decision making.
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Jorge Benitez: If NATO starts to lose the battle for the political will of its people, it will slowly fade into history. A major public diplomacy effort is needed to convince the democratic constituencies in NATO countries of the alliance’s salience. This is essential to the funding of military efforts in difficult economic times.
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Anders Fogh Rasmussen: A comprehensive approach is needed in Afghanistan and other areas of conflict. NATO and the EU, which work separately for political reasons, need to coordinate their efforts and share resources and information. NGOs should also collaborate with military forces.
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NATO: The Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Tallinn marked the launch of the NATO Afghan First Policy aimed at increasing NATO-ISAF’s support for the local economy in Afghanistan. The policy aims at facilitating the procurement of local goods and services through simplified bidding and contracting procedures in Afghanistan. This will allow qualified and certified Afghan firms to run as prime competitors for NATO-ISAF contracts.
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Djörn Eversteijn: NATO’s new strategic concept should define the alliance’s role in responding to 21st century security threats, while acknowledging that the organisation’s capacities are limited. NATO needs to prioritize and address the so called “desolidarisation” within the alliance, while also reinforcing public support, especially amongst the younger generations.
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Brussels Forum: NATO Secretary General Rasmussen called for Russia to be included in a new Euroatlantic missile defense shield to protect against threats from would-be nuclear states like Iran. Rasmussen was addressing the Brussels Forum, an annual high-level conference on transatlantic relations.
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Olaf Theiler: The war in Afghanistan has exposed strains among NATO members, but these tensions do not threaten the stability of the alliance in a fundamental way. Rather, they can lead to better cohesion by showing how NATO’s role in a 21st century security context can be better defined.
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Jackson Janes: In order to maintain its relevancy, NATO must convince the world that is as important now as it was 60 years ago. To to this, NATO should re-affirm its commitment to collective defense within a twenty-first century security context, properly resource deployments, and more equally share burdens.
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Stefanie Babst: Although NATO and women are not two words that typically go together, the organization is taking a number of actions to increase the representation of women both in policy and on the ground. NATO is an active supporter of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security.
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Julian Lindley-French & Kurt Volker: The departure of the highly-acclaimed Dutch force from Uruzghan has ramifications for both regional security and transatlantic relations in a broader sense. If no other European power fills the void, regional security could deteriorate and NATO cohesion will be strained.
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Joerg Wolf: The United States and some of its European partners seem to have increasingly different policy priorities. Should NATO members support the surge in Afghanistan and increase their defense budgets? Or should NATO focus on nuclear disarmament?
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Anders Fogh Rasmussen: After the London conference, NATO was accused of trying to achieve peace by bribing the Taliban. In this video, the NATO Secretary General says that this is not the case, and that reconciliation and re-integration efforts will provide an alternative path to the Afghan people.
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Cortnie Shupe: Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the West has failed to incorporate the Russian Federation into security institutions in Europe. The EU’s soft power security challenges confront the Russian hard security agenda regarding Eastern Europe. Three political moves could reverse that trend.
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Editorial Team: Though there have already been 15 NATO casualties in January 2010, the outlook on the ground is improving. According to a recent poll conducted by BBC and its affiliates throughout Afghanistan, support for foreign troops is on the rise; and the number of Taliban supporters has drastically fallen. Is the ISAF mission moving in the right direction?
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Sebastian Bruns: A renaissance of NATO’s maritime dimension is necessary in this globalized world, where piracy can wreak havoc on trade and international security. The new strategic concept must take into account the unique and increasing role that waterways will play in the twenty-first century.
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Dirk Schuchardt: Germany’s main interest in NATO enlargement lies in creating a stable European security order, while preventing a confrontation with Russia. Therefore, from the German perspective, Ukraine and Georgia should not join the Alliance.
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Jerzy S Deren: ISAF consists of a huge number of actors constrained by limited political will, with unequal combat roles, making forces more vulnerable. A holistic approach is required to counter the unique challenges of the Afghan war. Furthermore, a successful conclusion to this complex process is the only way to prove NATO’s credibility to an increasingly skeptical public.
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Olaf Theiler: The EU should draw on NATO’s Partnership for Peace Program, as an example of a successful framework to be adopted for aspiring member states in the Balkans. If implemented as part of an extended offer, this framework could link ESDP with Neighborhood Policy, thereby creating incentives for cooperation.
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Josef Braml: The US will no longer give Germany a free-pass on sharing “the burden of global responsibility.” As skepticism of American foreign commitments broadens at home, and with Chancellor Merkel’s address before a joint session of Congress, Germany is no longer in a position to drag its heels on issues that the US finds most important. Furthermore, if Germany hopes to have any future sway in US politics, fulfilling expectations now is necessary.
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Jorge Benitez: After excluding the security concerns of NATO’s eastern members as alliance priorities in the past, Secretary General Rasmussen reveals changes at a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Bratislava. Are these real changes in alliance policy or just lip service? The answer will be determined by how NATO settles the issue of contingency planning.
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Camille Grand: France’s return to full military membership of NATO inevitably raised fears that the first casualty might be the European defense project. But far from weakening ESDP, President Sarkozy’s move intends to strengthen it while at the same time hastening NATO’s reform.
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Sebastian Bruns: The new Secretary General of NATO needs to seize momentum to reinvigorate NATO’s influence, now the Eurocentric alliance is in decline. He will need tact and diplomacy to act as a mediator between the French and the Americans, whilst keeping the other member states united.
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Vilborg Ása Guðjónsdóttir: Lessons from Disagreements between the United States and Europe from 1954-2009
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NATO: As the insurgency persists the message from NATO is clear: although lasting longer than anticipated, ISAF’s aims will be achieved and prove sustainable in the long term.
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Ian Davis: Criticism of Germany as an unreliable military ally is widespread and growing. But rather than deregulating the rules of German military engagement, we should be looking to include similar non-aggression clauses in the national legislation of other NATO member states.
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Péter Marton: Euro-discourse often derides Americans for not recognizing “complexity” around them. The opposite is true in Afghanistan. The European countries present in the North are not particularly interested in learning a lot about the social context they are operating in, and they are generally slow to adapt to changes in their area of operations.
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Christopher Lee Davis: NATO’s near-term priority in Afghanistan must be the implementation of the new strategy to which member-states agreed at their last summit. Time is of the essence since the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate. The alliance-wide agreement offers new momentum to focus on five critical areas.
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Raffaello Pantucci: Greater coordination on Central-South Asia would be a boon to European and US interests in the region. Unfortunately, such coordination is still lacking and we are unlikely to see a greater push from the EU. More European involvement in any sort of “civilian surge” would be welcome, but will be unrealistic until the security situation is stabilized.
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Guillaume Levy: NATO is going through rapid change and needs a new European security partner in order to secure its long term survival. But first Europe’s military and defense systems need to be modernized. This can be achieved through effective partnerships between European states and through the strengthening of the European defense industry.
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Jan Techau: Drafting a new strategic concept for NATO provides a great chance for Europeans to get real about what it means to be allies and stop the great threat to the continent’s defense - the decoupling of the transatlantic alliance. But this means more and smarter spending on defense and most certainly more casualties.
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Jesse Michelle Kalata: The EU and NATO have to increase their strategic co-operation. In times of ever increasing global threats best practices for future missions have to be developed. Only a profound approach to transatlantic governance can establish these prerequisites.
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Marie Lall: The West continues to misunderstand Pakistani realities on the ground. It must alter its hawkish approach towards the region and embrace a deeper understanding of the views across Pakistan. A radical policy shift and investments to stabilize the economy must be made before Western involvement turns sour.
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Editorial Team: You are in a crowded, run-down basement. Lights are flashing in your eyes and your heart is racing. You’ve broken out in a sweat and it’s running down your back. People are anxious. Someone is screaming. Danger seems imminent.
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Luca Ratti: Expansion of NATO membership into Eastern Europe has provoked Russia. NATO must attempt constructive dialogue with Russia to solve this problem. The future and continued success of NATO will depend on either including Russia, or ceasing its open membership policy.
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Editorial Team: Terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear weapons are growing threats for the EU. 30 international experts interviewed by Atlantic-Community.org nearly unanimously call for a much stronger EU commitments to the stabilization of Pakistan than promised at yesterday’s EU-Pakistan summit. The EU should complement US strategy with a long-term focus on state building.
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Heiko Pääbo: Changing perceptions of the world order have influenced NATO’s open door policy. Russia believes that relations with NATO should be based on mutual respect and is reluctant to see the Alliance as a partner. NATO must maintain its shared values and consider Russia’s interests for a successful partnership.
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Memo 17: Enlargement, Russian relations and internal cooperation will test NATO’s ability to compromise and strike bargains in the upcoming months and years. In return for greater decision-making power, European NATO member states must increase contributions to the Alliance.
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Prosper Thuysbaert: NATO requires assistance in order to facilitate democracy and peace across the world. The United Nations Security Council needs to be reformed and made more globally representative, and smaller regional organizations need to be set up and work alongside NATO to assist failing states.
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Janusz Bugajski: Russia’s priority will be to reinforce its national interests and exert influence over the foreign and security policies of disparate states in an attempt to distract from their domestic problems. This increases the importance for NATO and its allies to work not only with Russia, but also its border countries.
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Jeffrey Mankoff: The success of attempts to build a strategic partnership will laregly rest with Russia. Not doing so should not be considered a failure as the positions of both sides would become clearer. Russia has the most to lose from not building a relationship, the West can bide its time.
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Asle Toje & Barbara Kunz: The new culture of collective defense among unarmed countries is not security, it is a suicide pact. Free-loading has left NATO dependent on the US. But as US influence is reduced, Europe will find that “soft power” without hard to back it is impotent. Unless Europe dumps the utopian idealists, there is a danger the continent will be left unprotected.
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Karsten Voigt: The transatlantic Alliance enters a modern era with different global challenges requiring new and innovative approaches. NATO must reassess its geopolitical position in addressing these issues and, if necessary, adapt accordingly.
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Olaf Theiler: The balance of burden sharing is crucial to the strength of the alliance. Contributions ranging from military personnel to medical equipment are vital to securing successful outcomes. Ensuring NATO is cohesive is crucial to its future effectiveness.
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Editorial Team: Somali pirates seized six vessels within the last week. With yesterday’s capture of the US cargo ship, whose captain is still being held for ransom, the piracy problem arrested global attention again. Questions arise about how to tackle piracy, and we want to ask you, our readers, about solutions.
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Editorial Team: Does one achievement stand out as a significant development at the infancy of the Obama presidency’s foreign policy, or have the early signs of progress been exaggerated out of context? Take part in our poll and vote what you think Obama’s greatest achievement has been.
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NATO Livefeed: Right here you had the chance to watch the NATO Youth Forum in Strasbourg from April 2-3, 2009. Distinguished speakers discussed topics ranging from the future security environment and NATO’s role within it, to how NATO can best use new communication channels in order to reach out to the next generation of atlanticists.
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Fabian Martin Lieschke: US leadership can respond to the more imminent challenge of Iranian nuclear ambitions and extend NATO’s Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Ukraine and Georgia. Here is a recommendation to President Obama.
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Constanze Stelzenmueller: Germany is a bridge between Russia and the West, and how Berlin chooses to deal with Moscow will set the tone for how the United States and the rest of Europe manage their own relationships with Russia.
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Claudine Lamond: The argument that US nuclear weapons in Europe are essential to security provision is losing its persuasion force. NATO’s Strategic Concept (2009) is an opportunity to reassess the idea that the presence of US nuclear weapons in Europe enhances European security.
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Yasser Abumuailek: If NATO applies global governance principles, it will be able to become the global leader in combating terrorism. Its military expertise and success in security provision, a sense of global legitimacy and its civilian-military approach to security promise success.
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Stefanie Babst: If governments are to deal effectively with the key foreign policy challenges of our age, they must engage in a new form of public diplomacy: one that combines understanding a given challenge with the ability to mobilize networks and public support to bring about concrete change.
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Editorial Team: The new Democrat administration and Europe’s positive welcome of President Obama promise to revitalize the transatlantic relationship. We are inviting you to tell us which three topics you think the US and Europe should prioritize. Your preferences will determine our focus in 2009.
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Memo 11: The war in Afghanistan is as much about winning militarily and politically as it is about winning the media battle against the Taliban. What it takes is an effective communication strategy that reaches Afghans in their daily life and respects conditions on the ground.
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Memo 10: In this new era under the Obama White House, it is high time for a transformation of transatlantic relations. The US must distance itself from the unipolar policies of the past and come to terms with a multipolar world. The EU has to develop more proactive policies.
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From the Editorial Team: British Defence Secretary John Hutton has called upon NATO allies to pull their weight and share the burden in Afghanistan. In one of the most outspoken speeches from a British defence minister in years, Hutton reprimands some EU members for a lack of commitment to global security interests.
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Tyson Barker: NATO is consistently looking for a means of reinventing itself to increase its relevance in the post-Cold War era. By boldly appointing Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski as the next Secretary General of NATO, the alliance can start the process in earnest.
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Jesse David Tatum: The Saakashvili administration’s biggest failure is an inability to represent a real change from the inept post-Soviet Georgian leadership of his predecessors.
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Assem Akram: It is time for strategy overhaul in Afghanistan. The size of the Afghan army must be dramatically increased; foreign troops should lock down borders; Pakistan must become a partner in providing solutions in Afghanistan; and the Afghan government needs top-to-bottom reform. Progress can only come with security.
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Tim Foxley: Too little time, effort and analytical resources are dedicated to understanding what the Taliban are saying - and that a change in this approach could lead to a change in the war.
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Interviews with YATA Delegates: Youth Atlantic Treaty Association delegates interviewed at their General Assembly held in Berlin in November 2008. The topics range from Russian relations to what Obama will ask Europe to do.
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William Maley: In the battle to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan, Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) are often on the front line. What are they actually, what are their tasks and ways of operating?
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Editorial Team: The escalation of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia has brought about widespread discussion as to how to deal with this increasingly prevalent problem. We are inviting you to tell us what you think is the most viable way forward through our interactive poll.
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Stanley R. Sloan: The hegemonic behavior of the Bush administration during its first term almost led to the end of the transatlantic partnership. The US will not be able to face the challenges of this century without its allies and NATO. A closely coordinated US-EU-NATO cooperation is essential to attain shared interests.
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David S. Yost : In order to deal with new security challenges, NATO is developing its concept for cooperation with civilian organizations. Since the early 1990’s, the European Union, the OSCE and the United Nations have been the closest partners. Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan are showing how crucial it is to expand this work.
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Jeffrey Mankoff: Washington and London have proposed dropping the NATO MAPs for Georgia and Ukraine, favoring an open-ended development plan for both countries. Germany and France protest such unorthodoxy, but this more flexible approach might allow NATO to balance its Russian interests with eventual expansion.
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NATO Channel: Two video reports give an insight into the encouraging development of Afghanistan’s security forces as the take-over from foreign forces begins to be consolidated.
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Christian Mölling: International organizations aim to overcome inefficiencies in complex crisis management by adopting “comprehensive approaches”. However, the implementation is affected by diverging security cultures and the particular interests of the member states.
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Bernhard Lucke: The US and NATO should develop exit strategies instead of increasing their military presence in Afghanistan. Winning back tribal leaders’ allegiance is the key to successfully drawing down troops. Western policy makers can learn many valuable lessons from the Soviet failure in Afghanistan.
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Interview with Jackson Janes: The executive director of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies tells Atlantic-community.org that Russia, energy security, climate change, Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the financial crisis are all pressing issues to be addressed jointly by Germany and the United States under an Obama administration.
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Daniel Korski: EU engagement in Afghanistan will affect Washington’s perception of its strategic partnership. The best way for the EU to stay a strong partner is to extend the aid-and-security approach of its Provincial Reconstruction Teams and take the concept to Kabul. Diplomacy with Pakistan will remain important.
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Memo 9: Afghanistan needs a continued international commitment to ensure its security and assist in economic and social development. The US, EU and Germany must focus on training local authorities. Cooperating with Iran and the Taliban remains a point of debate.
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Morgan Sheeran: Europe can contribute to progress in Afghanistan outside of the military arena: mentoring Afghan ministry officials, instilling policies of good governance, and developing the Afghan economy could ultimately provide as much security as any troop contribution.
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Florian Broschk: Extending the German ISAF mandate requires a broad public debate on the mission’s goals and strategies in Afghanistan. Germany must recognize the importance of counterinsurgency and improve a variety of its tactics - human intelligence, language training, and a greater troop presence.
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Abbas Daiyar: The Afghan Foreign Minister’s statement opposing talks with insurgents emphasizes existing divisions within government circles in Afghanistan and abroad. The US and NATO must win the war in Afghanistan. Involving regional countries like Russia, China and India may prevent history from repeating itself.
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From the Editorial Team: General John Craddock, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe for NATO, criticizes member states’ “wavering political will,” which prevents NATO from operating effectively. Is NATO an outdated body as many claim, or can it overcome political hesitations and remain a strong alliance?
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Morgan Sheeran: The Afghans have to secure their own country. The army has benefitted from Western training, but the police continues to lack active mentoring from ISAF. While a surge of combat troops in Afghanistan could be beneficial, what is needed the most are more police trainers and mentors. The police is the lynchpin of security for each village.
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Marek Swierczynski: Russia’s naval power prevents NATO from effectively defending Baltic States. If the Alliance is serious about its commitments, it must strengthen its marine capabilities to match those of the Russian Baltic Fleet.
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David Neil Lebhar: Ahmed Rashid argues that the conflict in Afghanistan needs a regional solution, including US-Iranian cooperation. The German military must intensify operations in northern Afghanistan, and the government has to educate the public about the mission’s importance.
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Djörn Eversteijn: NATO’s reliance on its global partnerships may seem innocuous today. Contributions in Afghanistan from a diverse array of nations, such as Australia and South Korea, are seen as indispensable in security and reconstruction efforts. Until a full commitment by member states is exhibited, though, NATO’s long-term credibility is in danger.
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Thorsten Benner & Lars Zimmermann: Germany lacks an informed and responsible debate on the country’s engagement in Afghanistan. The looming populism of the 2009 election year is set to make matters even worse. Politicians and the media must prevent this from happening.
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Memo 8: Atlantic Community members conclude that the EU, acting in coordination with the UN, is in the best position to negotiate a peaceful solution. The US, Russia, Georgia, NATO, and others must consider their future strategies carefully.
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Atlantik-Brücke’s Young Leaders: The Atlantic partners must jointly address the economic slowdown, competition over scarce resources and energy dependence. Moreover, the transatlantic relationship faces an immediate, critical test in Afghanistan. Success there is needed as a demonstration of our ability to effectively address common security threats.
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Djörn Eversteijn: Afghanistan is the litmus test for the relevance of history’s most successful military alliance in the 21st century. Despite official statements that emphasize the importance of the alliance’s mission in Afghanistan, both member states’ long-term commitment and substantial contributions to the mission remain largely absent. Member states’ unwillingness not only endangers the future of Afghanistan, but, perhaps even more importantly, also puts the future of the transatlantic alliance at risk.
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Stefan Fröhlich: The fighting between Russia and Georgia over the separatist enclave of South Ossetia is turning into a reversion of spheres of influence and a balance of power politics in Europe. The EU and the Euro-Atlantic community must take steps to mediate new developments.
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Christoph Bertram: No one should have been surprised at the way in which Russia has treated tiny and weak Georgia. What is surprising, however, is the eagerness with which many western governments continue to pretend that they can wield effective influence on Russia’s behavior in the Caucasus.
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David Francis: The EU must take a strong yet cooperative stance toward Russia. The next US administration must regain its moral standing in international politics. Ultimately, Moscow must understand that its recent actions in Georgia are unacceptable.
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Interview with Hussain Haqqani: Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States reaffirms his country’s democracy and promises better cooperation with the United States and Afghanistan in an interview with Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation.
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Ulf Gartzke: Mikhail Saakashvili’s reckless military gamble has unfortunately paid off and put him on a fast track to NATO membership. This stunning turnaround demonstrates the problems with the behavior of the Georgian leadership as well as with the West’s response to their actions.
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Grigol Ubiria: NATO’s eastern enlargement is too often solely considered from the perspective of Russia’s right to defend its interests on its borders. Little or no attention has been paid to factors forcing former Soviet republics, particularly Georgia and Ukraine, to rush to join the alliance.
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Nikolas Kirrill Gvosdev: Despite the proclaimed cooperative approach, Franco-American tensions could grow bigger than under Chirac. Sarkozy’s Euro-Atlantic, yet independent, foreign policy moves could well be at odds with the next US president’s understanding of multilateralism.
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Memo 7: The members of the Atlantic Community believe that Ukraine belongs to Europe. Ukraine needs to be integrated into Western alliances without undermining Western-Russian relations.
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Fabian Martin Lieschke: NATO’s nuclear posture is dated and needs to be reconsidered during next year’s review. If NATO withdraws sub-strategic nuclear weapons from Europe it can pursue a leverage strategy to persuade Russia to also eliminate its tactical nuclear weapons.
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Transatlantic Press Round-up: The 2008 White Paper sets the tone for the next decade of French defense policy. Although France’s “loss of independence” is controversial, many welcome the progress towards synchronization of the French, European, and transatlantic security and defense strategies.
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Anatol Lieven: NATO might fail in Afghanistan. Hopes for democracy, development, and progress in Afghanistan are already dead. Even though the situation seems hopeless, the West can and should prevent further deterioration.
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Jens F. Laurson and George A. Pieler: NATO is trying to expand its military wing to more countries, which used to be “the enemy,” in its effort to secure its future. However, Europe’s reliance on imported oil should be considered before alienating exporters like Russia in the attempt of reinventing NATO’s aging alliance.
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Heinrich Bonnenberg: Germany and the EU must give stronger credit to Ukraine’s emergence as an independent democracy in the tradition of Europe’s historic liberal movements. The EU should quickly enable Ukrainian accession, but NATO membership should not be pursued, as this would likely exasperate tensions with Russia.
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Memo 6: Members of the Atlantic Community are convinced that NATO needs to redefine its future role and relationship with Russia. Fundamental change, however, is unlikely to occur in the near future and the NATO-Russian relationship may worsen.
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Richard G. Lugar: We must forge a more productive relationship with Russia. The absence of a collective energy security strategy and the lack of supply diversification will lead to greater fragmentation among European nations and across the Atlantic.
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Peter van Ham: NATO is slowly losing its significance as the central platform to manage transatlantic security challenges. In view of the different reasons for the Alliance’s declining relevance, its resilience, rather than its demise should surprise us.
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Marek Swierczynski: The NATO-isation of missile defense at the Bucharest summit paradoxically carried away the Poland-US agreement on the issue. The once all-uniting idea of placing the interceptors on Poland’s Baltic coast is losing political support and negotiations are reported to be close to a stall. The current round of the talks is not expected to push things forward.
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Péter Marton: Afghanistan needs an external security guarantee for the long term. NATO should provide that guarantee against clashing external influence-seeking endeavours, but it can only do so it if it sheds its geopolitical identity for the Afghan mission. That is how a neutral strategic identity could be secured for Afghanistan.
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James Jones: While NATO forces are needed in Afghanistan, the real focus should be on fighting narcotics, building up an effective judicial system, increasing Afghan police capabilities, empowering a single individual to represent the international community, and acknowledging regional difficulties.
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Daniel Rackowski: With Sarkozy contemplating bringing France back into the NATO fold, the need for a strong European defense force is at the forefront, writes Daniel Rackowski for ISN Security Watch.
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T. Noetzel & B. Schreer: Despite a theoretically clear strategy, NATO is both politically and militarily ill-prepared to execute the required counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. An Afghan disaster might not be a death sentence for the Alliance, but would certainly have major repercussions.
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Daniel Korski & Richard Gowan: Away from the limelight and with other world events getting the media’s attention, the situation in Kosovo has been getting worse and worse. And it all started so well with the EU managing to get a consensus for its ESDP mission and two-thirds of EU states backing the province’s independence.
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Andreas Umland: Don’t overestimate Berlin’s statements concerning Russian interests in the former USSR
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Frank-Walter Steinmeier: For the past 60 years the transatlantic relationship has been the world’s transformative partnership. America’s relationship with Europe - more than with any other part of the world - enables both of us to achieve goals that neither of us could achieve alone.
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Marek Swierczynski: The Lisbon Treaty opens a new path for the European Security and Defense Policy. After Europe failed to create either a relevant European defense capability or a common security strategy, it favors a collective defense that may ultimately threaten NATO.
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Atlantic Community SURVEY: 23 European and US policy analysts and our members express stronger support for Ukraine’s NATO aspirations than witnessed at the Bucharest Summit. Advocacy for fast NATO enlargement correlates with geographic proximity to Russia.
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Marek Swierczynski: NATO’s decision to delay a major enlargement should only be viewed in a positive light if it results in better management of the Afghan mission, and the Alliance keeps up the pace to relaunch negotiations with Ukraine and Georgia.
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Stanley R. Sloan: Besides agreeing on devoting more military and non-military resources to the mission in Afghanistan, NATO leaders at the Bucharest Summit should start drafting a new strategic concept and a contemporary Atlantic Charter for the new American administration to tackle in 2009.
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Daniel Korski: Something odd is happening across Europe’s security landscape. In spite of British Prime Minister Brown’s euro-scepticism, and Britain’s supposed European isolation following the Iraq War, London is once again becoming the centerpiece of European security cooperation.
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Rüdiger Lentz: Increasing debates within the Alliance about the inequity of risk- and burden-sharing among its members overshadow the upcoming summit in Bucharest. Especially, the Germans are being pressured by Washington and their Western allies to send more fighting troops to Afghanistan.
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Wess Mitchell: While the United States has been prodding the alliance’s second-tier members, newcomers have stepped up in Afghanistan.
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Nikolas Kirrill Gvosdev: Secretary-General De Hoop Scheffer must find a compromise between NATO members: those who don’t want to anger Russia and those pushing to include Eastern European states.
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Ambassador Victoria Nuland: “Europe needs, the United States needs, NATO needs, the democratic world needs – a stronger, more capable European defense capacity.”
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Marek Swierczynski: Just before the NATO summit in Bucharest, the differences on what and how the Alliance should do in the future seem all but rising on both sides of the Atlantic. The Warsaw conference on NATO’s Transformation made fundamental divides clearly visible.
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Dora Bakoyannis: Greece supports the enlargement of NATO in the Western Balkans with the invitations to Croatia and Albania, but the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s “intransigeant stance and its actions of an irredentist and nationalistic logic” are unacceptable.
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Anna Nadgrodkiewicz: When in Washington, Tusk will need to address the role of Polish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the necessity of easing visa requirements, and the proposed missile defense shield. Most importantly, Tusk should use his visit to build name recognition and focus on issues important to Poland.
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D. Korski & M. Williams: NATO’s members need to take action if the 60 year old alliance is to survive as a useful organization.
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Dieter Farwick: The NATO defense ministers’ meeting should conclude with an agreement to send additional forces to Afghanistan. The troops can win if given the necessary resources and operational freedom.
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Volker Perthes: I admit that there is no simple checklist to determine how, when, or where German troops should be deployed abroad. But there are a number of valid questions that can be posed before soldiers are sent to peacekeeping and peace-enf
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Memo 4: Members of the Atlantic Community are mostly optimistic about the future of Kosovo and conflict resolution in the Western Balkans. The EU has a key role in this region and policy is in the right track, but, of course, big challenges still lie ahead.
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Dr. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg: The latest survey of Afghan attitudes toward ISAF activities stresses the need for continued German engagement in Afghanistan.
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Thomas de Waal: The simmering conflicts in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia could easily flare up. Although they are driven by unresolved regional disputes, both the US and Russia loom large in the background.
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Alexander Bernhard Bitter: Missile defense for Europe is coterminous with NATO’s mission. The European policy of waiting for a new US administration is flawed, as the financial burden of the endeavor could shift heavily toward Europe.
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Dominique Moisi: I considers how likely it is that France will return to NATO’s military command. Regardless of Sarkozy’s decision, the issue represents a new strategy: “to link progress in building a common European defense and security structure with a redefinition of NATO.”
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Andreas Beckmann: The general public does not understand the advantages of a US ground-based missile defense system in Europe. Western politicians should be wary of making confusing public statements that could facilitate Russian and Iranian efforts to divide the Alliance.
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Marco Overhaus: 2007 and 2008 could be decisive years for the region. A difficult balance must be struck, between a renewed and robust EU engagement in the Western Balkans and the need to make reform efforts locally self-supporting.
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Christoph Bertram: If European governments today distance themselves from America, they will both antagonize and further weaken the US. This will in turn undermine European foreign policy influence around the world.
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Hans Binnendijk: The consequences of failure in Afghanistan would be severe. I offer three points to help European governments make the case for continued participation in the NATO ISAF mission.
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Memo 3: Members of the Atlantic Community question German participation in OEF, support ISAF and want increased emphasis on social issues in Afghanistan. In this Executive Summary, Annette Poelking of the Atlantic Initiative has more on members’ ideas for Afghanistan and an update on the ongoing debate.
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Nikolas Kirrill Gvosdev: I reject Rudolph Giuliani’s call to expand NATO membership to other, non-Western democracies. Adding states like Australia or India to “globalize” NATO would undermine its original and enduring purpose: collective security through Article 5.
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Hans-Ulrich Klose: We need a new philosophy of deterrence against Iran. A tough containment policy, including Russia, and strong defense of Israel could bring about a changed security architecture in the Middle East that might finally include Tehran.
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Atlantic Happy Hour: NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer came to Berlin on a mission to get more German troops into the south of Afghanistan. As the guest of honor at an event run by the Atlantic Initiative, publisher of the Atlantic Community, Scheffer appeared with representatives from five of Germany’s political parties to respond to questions on the future of operations in Afghanistan.
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John Koenig: The transatlantic relationship is more complex—and more vital—than ever before. Responding to Egon Bahr’s article, I note that NATO is and should remain rooted in the transatlantic community.
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Markus Kaim: I advocate merging the military capabilities of Germany’s three current mandates under the ISAF umbrella to bring transatlantic equilibrium to the burden-sharing in Afghanistan. Military participation in Operation Enduring Freedom should end, and ISAF Aerial Reconnaissance and Surveillance should be integrated into a single ISAF directive.
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Egon Bahr: Europe must emancipate itself from the United States and take a stand for multilateralism. I see NATO expansion as an invitation for the US to continue to dominate the alliance—Europe should oppose it.
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David G. Haglund: I blame disagreement over Afghanistan for the disappearance of the golden relationship between Berlin and Ottawa. Canada’s “perfect peacekeepers” want Germans to shoulder their fair share of the NATO burden.
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Thomas Speckmann: Iraq’s label as a “second Vietnam” for the United States does not hold up to scrutiny. Recent changes to US military strategy on terrorism— building infrastructure, winning hearts and minds—come straight out of the Bundeswehr handbook, and they’re working. So why not take them to Kabul?
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Margarita Mathiopoulos: The West cannot afford a globally weak or inept United States. The recent political changes in France, Japan, Britain and Germany present an opportunity to start fresh with a new US administration in 2008.
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Ulf Gartzke: I warn of a looming “nightmare scenario” when EU member states could split from the US and each other over independent status for Kosovo. Results from the latest Bush-Putin summit could raise the stakes.
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Michael John Williams: The EU Battlegroups, though small, are a step in the right direction. The United States can and should play a role in promoting further advancement of European expeditionary capability.
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Memo 1: Members of the Atlantic Community commented on the appropriate role for the EU in Afghanistan.
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Karsten Voigt: Shifting German troops out of the north of Afghanistan would be detrimental to the country. The troops should stay with their original mission, as they are providing significant support to the allied forces.
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Heiko Borchert and Karina Forster: Energy infrastructure security requires a serious military commitment. The EU should pool resources with NATO through joint research in security and technology, military cooperation with key energy partners such as Africa, and mutual education through exchange of lessons learned.
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Heiko Borchert and Karina Forster : We see hard power as integral to the preservation of energy infrastructure. EU-NATO cooperation is therefore key to preserving this vital element of energy security.
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Julianne Smith: I want the EU to take a stronger role in Afghanistan. The EU should act as a coordinating body for the reconstruction and development of the country. This would also strengthen Europe’s standing with its partners.
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Eckart von Klaeden: Europe will soon be vulnerable to medium-range ballistic missiles. The time to act is now. Europe, Germany and NATO must agree on an anti-missile shield to protect against threats from Iran and others.
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Atlantic Initiative Advisory Board: members discuss the most important issue facing the transatlantic relationship today. Rudolf G. Adam, Christoph Bertram, Philip von Boehm-Bezing, John Hulsman, Eckart von Klaeden, Hans-Ulrich Klose, and Norbert Otten find that the West continues to be a political power player.
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Jan-Friedrich Kallmorgen and Andreas Beckmann: Germany should support the proposed US missile defense plan and broaden the plan through NATO. Though this issue is rarely understood in Germany, it is evident that the world faces a massive security problem as a result of Iran’s developing nuclear program.
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Eckart von Klaeden: Europe and Germany need missile defense against the threat from Iran. Europe has long neglected the new strategic threats arising from missile proliferation.
This is the first of a two-part series from the Atlantic Initiative Advisory Board Member.
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Karsten Voigt: I cannot foresee an end to the German and Allied commitment in Afghanistan as long as the Taliban pose a threat to the country’s stability. We cannot allow pro-terrorist groups to take over, and that good governance is a priority.
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Wess Mitchell: I recommend a security agreement with Prague now to set precedent for missile defense negotiations with other NATO members later, starting with Poland. Bilateral agreements with Eastern European countries would reinforce Washington’s strategic commitment to the region and would not undermine NATO in the least.
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Global Must Read Articles
Dr. Patryk Pawlak is a Research Fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies in Paris where he deals with EU-US relations and US domestic and foreign policies. He also deals with EU Justice and Home Affairs, with particular regard to its external dimension, border management and data protection. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the European University Institute in Florence.
Prior to
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The politics of routes and access in the Pak-Afghan region has muddled US-Pakistan relations. ++ Following a 2011 NATO attack in Pakistan, Islamabad closed roads to the Afghan border. ++ Consequently, the US had been relying on a longer ground route through Central Asia at a cost of $100 million more a month. ++ Washington responded by holding $1.2 billion in reimbursement for counterterrorism
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Although Afghanistan remains a hotbed of terrorist activity, NATO will quit the country by 2014. ++ This marks an end to a tragic chapter in the Alliance’s history. ++ But little attention has been focused on Mali which suffered a coup just two months ago, resulting in the practice of harsh sharia law and the raising of al-Qaeda flags over buildings. ++ Fighting between Islamist and Nationalist
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The NATO summit in Chicago needs to be about more than just Afghanistan. ++ The Alliance must also respond to defense cuts, troubled relations with Russia, and the lessons from Libya. ++ There are three main areas for action. ++ First, NATO must help create the conditions for a world free of nuclear weapons. ++ Second, the summit is an opportunity for the Alliance to reassure Russia on missile
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Dr. Daniel Hamilton is the Richard von Weizsäcker Professor and Director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the “Top 30 Global Go-To Think Tanks” in 2009.
He also serves as Executive Director of the American Consortium for EU Studies, designated
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The Dayton Agreement ended a war, but it also institutionalized ethnicity as the predominant feature of Bosnian social and political identity. ++ There has been little room for other minorities, since they had no seat at the negotiating table which was exclusively reserved for those who used weapons. ++ Europe and the United States need to assist Bosnia in reforming its constitution. ++
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Any continued NATO presence in Afghanistan is doomed. ++ The Afghan government is corrupt. ++ The Taliban have not gone away. ++ Nearby countries like Pakistan, Iran, and India will continue to pursue their own interests in the area. ++ The recent agreement between the US and Afghan governments would see US commitment in some form extended to 2024. ++ Such long-term commitment is worthless. ++ A
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The violence in Syria will never be ended through diplomacy. ++ The Obama administration must accept reality and work with options that could end the bloodshed. ++ More unarmed observers and sanctions will not work. ++ An arms embargo only reinforces the regime’s military advantage. ++ Any new proposals should emphasize safe zones or humanitarian corridors, which could be enforced with a small
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The financial crisis has hit the defense budgets of NATO members. With no prospects for an economic upturn in sight, NATO has been urging its members to save money through specialization and collaboration, under the ‘smart defense’ initiative. But smart defense has proven difficult given that governments fear giving up certain national capabilities and choose the political safer route of
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Dr. Paal Hilde is Associate Professor and Head of Section for Norwegian Security Policy at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies (IFS).
Dr. Hilde is also a senior member of atlantic-community.org. His research interests include Norwegian security and defense policy, NATO, the High North (the Barents region and international relations in Arctic Europe), Russia and Central Europe. Moreover,
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The Alliance must ensure complete transparency in its military operations. ++ Last August, NATO bombs killed around 34 Libyan civilians in the small village of Majer. ++ NATO however has refused to fully investigate exactly what happened in Majer and other places. ++ In an unacceptable response, NATO rejected cooperating with an expert panel appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. ++ Although
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Sally McNamara is a Senior Policy Analyst in European Affairs at The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.
Formerly the Director of International Relations for the American Legislative Exchange Council, McNamara joined Heritage in 2006 and now concentrates on American relations with the European Union and European countries, with particular focus on economic reform
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NATO is currently preparing for its summit meeting in Chicago in May 2012. This event was originally planned as a sort of “routine meeting“ which should primarily assess the progress made in implementing all the tasks NATO’s Heads of States and governments had issued at the historical Lisbon summit in 2010. However, recent developments in the Arab world and the international financial
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Even as NATO troops aim to leave Afghanistan in 2014, they are building an Afghan army to continuing fighting the war for them. ++ This is a misguided policy that will further empower a government that the Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group, sees marginalizing them. ++ In addition, such a policy would undermine peace talks with the Taliban, who (rightly) now regard them as
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The border incident that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers was tragic and regrettable, but must not be allowed to destroy the US-Pakistan relationship. ++ The Pakistani government is playing with fire in trying to exploit the incident to generate domestic support. ++ For all its troubles, the US-Pakistani partnership is still crucial to combating terrorism in the region and in the interests of both
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The successful Libyan mission exhibits the value of US leadership in creating stronger global alliances fit to enforce global security. ++ As a result of US efforts, NATO is realizing its potential as the world’s most effective and cohesive military alliance. ++ Libya represents one of the swiftest and most efficient missions in NATO’s history with an effective command structure and an
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The Libyan intervention has proven NATO’s resilience as a military alliance. ++ While not all NATO members participated in the military operation, a coalition of the willing spearheaded by France and the UK successfully coordinated their efforts to lend critical support to the rebels. ++ The exemplary partnership between the American intelligence community and the European naval and air forces
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The West should not expect any major changes in Russian foreign policy upon Putin’s return to the Kremlin. ++ Russia will continue to enforce its present agreements and maintain a pragmatic partnership with the US and Europe. ++ Putin’s rhetoric may resonate with Soviet nostalgia, but Russia will remain committed to expanding commercial ties with the West. ++ The upcoming power shuffle will not
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The West should not expect any major changes in Russian foreign policy upon Putin’s return to the Kremlin. ++ Russia will continue to enforce its present agreements and maintain a pragmatic partnership with the US and Europe. ++ Putin’s rhetoric may resonate with Soviet nostalgia, but Russia will remain committed to expanding commercial ties with the West. ++ The upcoming power shuffle will not
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Despite cultivating the image of a “peaceful power”, Beijing’s response to the Libyan intervention was a missed opportunity for China to embrace the role of a global leader. ++ Instead of acting as a responsible member of the international community, China was preoccupied with protecting its own national interests in Libya. ++ China should have used its position as a non-NATO member of the UN
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In his paper for the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Patrick Keller assesses European defense budgets in the aftermath of the economic crisis.
Dr. Keller’s analysis shows how the current economic climate has led to sharp cuts in European defense spending, resulting in diminished capabilities. A credible defense system now requires greater cooperation and pooling of
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Despite the domestic assault on his Libya policy, President Obama’s strategy to depose Gaddafi has worked, with US support for NATO combat operations proving critical to the rebel forces’ success. ++ The Libyan case shows that US global leadership remains “indispensible” but also that countries with deeper ties to Libya such as France, Italy and Spain must lead in assembling
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With Libya on the verge of ousting Gaddafi, the rebels cannot allow tribal divisions to tear their leadership apart. ++ To support a peaceful transition of power, the outside world should be prepared to send, “at the very least”, military and police advisers and perhaps “several thousand” troops to Libya. ++ This would be “costly and risky”, but far less so
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The “special relationship” between the UK and US has become “a rather pathetic British conceit”. ++ In light of severe defense cuts that will see tanks and artillery cut by 40 percent, Britain no longer has the military “mass” to justify its reputation as a vital US ally. ++ In turn, London has lost confidence in nearly all its European partners besides France.
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The wars in Afghanistan and Libya have exposed severe deficiencies in NATO and revealed five lessons the US and Europe must heed to preserve the Alliance. ++ Partners on both sides of the Atlantic should take ownership of NATO. Europe should reconsider its crippling defense budget cuts, while the US must stop trying to “lead from behind”. ++ Both sides also need to foster transatlantic
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“Libya is the first NATO war in which the US is taking a back seat, while the European allies take decisive military action. This should be cause for cautious optimism about NATO,” argues Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy at the Center for European Reform. “In fact, if the war ends well, Libya may yet come to be seen in hindsight as the moment when Europe assumed its rightful share of
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Drawing from the results of Lisbon summit, Russia’s cooperation with NATO on missile defense has to be based on equal participation and common pan-European security. ++ This initiative is perceived by the Kremlin as a step towards strategic partnership with NATO. ++ To avoid mutual suspicions, European missile defense should be deployed in the southern part of the continent. ++
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The failure of peace negotiations led by the South African president with Colonel Gaddafi coupled with regime’s further international isolation and the success of Libyan opposition give more credits to NATO’s military strategy. ++ The latter includes military assault on Gaddafi, cooperation with and work on behalf of Libyan opposition and “the encouragement of political and
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Franco-British estrangement, caused by opposing lessons from 1956 Suez debacle, ended en route to Benghazi . ++ London realizes relationship with Washington is less special, so needs to prove independence to be noticed. ++ UK and France want to be tough guys on continent where Germany can’t play ball for security; pooling resources through NATO is only solution for Franco-British
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With the Doha Conference underway between NATO and representatives from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, NATO Secretary General Rasmussen outlines prospects to intensify the security partnership in the Gulf. ++ As security in the broader Middle East and NATO states becomes increasingly interdependent in issues such as terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, common solutions
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1: Russia has civilian and democratic control over its army. ++ 2: Russia’s envoy to NATO is a staunch champion of a strengthened relationship with NATO. ++ 3: Russia’s membership of NATO would not be a threat to China. ++ 4: The Collective Security Treaty Organization is not a mirror image of NATO. ++ 5: Russia’s ambitions are reasonable - the end of the Cold War abolished the “status of
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Transatlantic Relations formed the center of discussion at the recent annual summits of NATO, the United States and the European Union in Lisbon. ++ NATO set out a clear future plan for itself in Afghanistan and endorsed an improved relationship with Russia. ++ Furthermore, during the EU-US Summit, better understanding of EU-US interdependence in the world economy was highlighted. ++ However, the
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NATO members face a dilemma as to whether Iran should be declared a threat or not. ++ Some countries such as Turkey are opposed to the approach. ++ The chief problem with an “enemy perception of Iran” is that it views Iran through a Cold War lens, whereas in reality it and the West have many shared interests, such as combating drug trafficking, terrorism as well as Iraq and Afghanistan. ++ Yet,
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Despite losing its status as an empire, Britain remained one of the world’s leading military powers during the 20th Century. ++ But the days of British military power appear to be ending, thanks to the cuts of the Strategic Defense Review, announced this week. ++ The fact that British defense capabilities are in decline means that more of the defense burden of the “Free World”
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Prior to the NATO Summit in November, the Alliance strives to decide what to do with around 200 US atomic weapons piled up in Europe, which according to some observers is an outright negation of NPT. ++ Germany has been in the forefront demanding withdrawal of these nuclear weapons. ++ However, members like Poland fear that the idea of NATO’s nuclear disarmament could undercut NATO’s
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Successes achieved by the US Marines and their Afghan counterparts in Helmand Province show that the war is far from a lost cause. ++ A bottom-up counter-insurgency strategy has provided local populations with security and allowed for the return of businesses, core services, and governance in territories previously controlled by insurgents. ++ Empowering local government and maintaining an open
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The war in Afghanistan costs $100 billion annually and requires the deployment of 100,000 NATO troops – but why must it be fought? ++ The West is trapped in an incomprehensible war, justified by a counter-insurgency theory that leaders are unable to refute and incapable of actualizing. ++ Global theories are intellectually appealing, but they do not win wars. ++ NATO must finally
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The implications of the demographic changes in Europe and their effect on NATO are a topic that deserves greater attention in the discussions surrounding NATO’s new strategic concept. This notwithstanding, the greatest challenge to NATO remains the internal disagreement over what constitutes an external threat to the Alliance. However, it is precisely the demographic change that threatens
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Funnelling money for infrastructure is a luxury that the necessarily long-term US military presence in Afghanistan cannot afford. ++ “Our objective is not to remake Afghanistan. That is the Afghans’ job.” ++ Moreover, a failure in Afghanistan could destabilize Pakistan and stretch an already taxed Nato too thin. ++ The future of Nato itself is “at risk in
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It is vital that European security institutions “adapt to the challenges — and opportunities — of a new era.” ++ Russia’s new ideas about European security deserve thoughtful consideration, but the United States does not believe in the need for new treaties or institutions. ++ Reciprocal transparency about military forces and limitations on the size and location of conventional forces
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The way to expedite the removal of American troops in Afghanistan is to train locals to assume peacekeeping responsibilities. ++ “A smaller number [of troops] would mold Afghan recruits into an indigenous Army
and National Police force that could in time assume responsibility for protecting their country so the Americans and NATO allies could go home.”++ NATO has been reluctant to
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Discussions on Turkey’s EU membership tend to neglect the fact that the country’s strategic significance has skyrocketed since the end of the Cold War. From the standpoint of Western interests, Turkey plays a key role in conflict resolution from the Balkans to the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia, to the Persian Gulf region. It is hence essential that the United States and the
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US President Obama’s surprise visit to Afghanistan last Sunday has prompted an examination of Hamid Karzai’s alleged ties to the opium trade. ++ Admiral Mike Mullen, America’s most senior military commander reiterated that continued American military and civilian assistance depends heavily on Afghan willingenss to combat corruption in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. ++ Support for Mr.
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The time has finally come to invite Russia to join NATO. ++ “Trans-Atlantic security needs have changed fundamentally in the last two decades. The East-West confrontation has ended, and Moscow now shares many interests with NATO.” ++ In this context, the inclusion of Russia in the organization would mark the “logical consummation” of a Euro-Atlantic security order of which
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The anti-Europe discourse is fashionable again these days in American tribunes. ++ “Pacifist Europe” progressively withdrawing its commitment from NATO’s engagement in Afghanistan fuels scepticism towards the everlasting European partner. ++ In spite of this overall pessimistic tone, the Obama’s administration should publicly support the transatlantic partnership because the United States and
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At the Munich Security Conference, NATO SecGen Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced that the organization will widen its scope to include relations with China, India and other global players. ++ It’s time for NATO to adapt to the new realities of an increasingly globalized world. ++ “It makes sense for the Western alliance to start serious talks on security cooperation with the Asian
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The new Commander Emergency Response Program (CERP) aims to counter the corruption of predecessor programs in Afghanistan by awarding aid funds for ‘village development,’ avoiding direct cash payments. ++ NATO hopes that by “siphoning off low-level recruits it can force the Taliban to negotiate from a weaker position.” ++ Right now, more than their Western counterparts,
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Apart from Pakistan, President Obama did not talk about the role of any other stakeholders in the region in his speech. ++ It was an unwise decision not to mention Iran, considering the role it has to play in tackling regional drug traffic. ++ Afghanistan’s narco-economy should be considered as important a problem as terrorism. ++ With the majority of the Afghan drug trade passing through Iran, a
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Obama’s prolonged deliberation about Afghanistan risks undermining his commitment to whichever decision he ends up making. ++ As there is unanimity in the Pentagon and considerable agreement in Congress and among NATO allies about the need for additional American and NATO troops, it is remarkable that Obama has requested yet another study. ++ “It is not enough for a president to be seen as having
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From arms reduction to Afghanistan to Iran, it is in Washington’s best interest to ensure cooperation with Moscow on a wide range of issues. Policy-makers in Washington now have to choose between different options for dealing with Moscow: rely on either the EU or on Germany as a focal point for dealing with the Russians, or conduct relations bilaterally.
Washington, however, is unlikely to
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The US needs to reduce its footprint in Afghanistan and start focussing on nation-building at home. ++ The US “does not have the Afghan partners, the NATO allies, the domestic support, the financial resources or the national interest to justify an enlarged and prolonged nation-building effort in Afghanistan.” ++ Although withdrawal may create new threats, so will staying and a stronger America
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) today represents the strongest military and political alliance in the world. Its member states on both sides of the Atlantic are situated in the planet’s best developed areas, in terms of social modernization and political democratization, technological advancement, economic prosperity and productivity. The 900 million people living in North America
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NATO should draw Russia into a closer association to consolidate security in Europe and indirectly facilitate “the fading of Russia’s lingering imperial ambitions.” ++ Improved NATO-Russia relations could pave the way to more cooperation with leading Asian powers like China, India and Japan. ++ NATO shall become “the hub of a globe-spanning web of various regional
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Withdrawal from the CIS for Georgia represents a continental shift away from Russia and other former Soviet republics. ++ President Saakashvili should not have left so quickly as it frees Moscow from the obligation of viewing the territorial integrity of Georgia. ++ “Georgia’s actions, because it is unlikely to be accompanied by any cataclysmic consequences, may make it easier for
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Opponents of missile defense argue unpersuasively that “there is no near-term, long-range Iranian missile threat and the proposed US system could not defeat such a threat anyway.” ++ Yet Iran continues to buy crucial materials and make progress in their missile tests. ++ The US plan includes state-of-the-art radar and interceptors, and there is no reason to believe they would not work
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German politicians must address public questions about NATO involvement in Afghanistan. ++ They must recognize that the war entails risks, and costs - including German lives - and communicate to Germans that they owe their soldiers respect, empathy and support. ++ Finally, they must admit that wars are not won half-heartedly: keeping the number of troops low increases the necessity for air
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The road to more
security and stability in Afghanistan runs exclusively through Pakistan. Only
if the Pakistani leadership manages to avoid the collapse of political order
and the stem the march of the Taliban out of the northwest of the country will
peace in Afghanistan have a real chance. US President Obama and his foreign
policy team have finally realized this reality. Supporting the
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Since the end of the
Cold War there have been regular prognoses concerning the absolution of NATO.
In fact since then the Alliance has undergone scores of tests: Bosnia, Kosovo,
9/11, Iraq and most recently Afghanistan. In addition to these trials came the
eight years of the Bush administration, whose indifference toward consensus and
diplomacy had corrosive effects on NATO. However, the
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The US and the EU must take a coordinated approach when trying to bring around reform in “Europe’s last dictatorship,” Belarus, which will be a slow and tough process. ++ The US should consider lifting sanctions only on the basis of strict conditionality. ++ Belarus must be pressured to have more independent media, to investigate the cases of missing dissidents, and to end the practice of jailing
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NATO, so far the most successful regional security alliance, needs to define its strategic focus.++ While Afghanistan remains the pressing issue, NATO needs to move beyond a focus on the topical hotspots towards long-term strategic thinking.++ With the number of non-traditional threats rising, reality is that NATO won’t be able to address every challenge.++ Thus, a consensus on the scope of
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Gen. Petraeus faces a tougher fight in Afghanistan then Iraq in applying his counterinsurgency tactics; to first hit the insurgency hard to then strip away the moderates.++ His asset of strong diplomatic support to enable a regional approach, is upset by two current difficulties: instable Pakistan, crucial to military success, is sceptical of cooperation, and there remains a lack
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The launch of NATO military exercises in Georgia – the latest effort in Tbilisi’s campaign for membership of the alliance - has angered Russia. ++ Georgia believes NATO is pivotal to its security and independence, but Russia has labelled the exercises as “dangerous” and “provocative”. ++ Many Georgians were disappointed NATO has not yet granted the country
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The global community is slowly realizing the magnitude of the dangers the current problems Pakistan and Afghanistan carry for the world. ++ France has taken an active role, “committed to contributing its full weight to help settle these conflicts.” ++ Efforts to stabilize Afghanistan will fail if Pakistan does not participate fully in the fight against terrorism. ++ The solution
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There are 3 truths about the piracy problem: the lawlessness of Somalia creates a safe haven for criminals; the consequences of an attack are significant for shipping companies, its ships and crews; the coalition naval forces are under resourced to patrol the space.++ A public-private collaboration would allow for burden sharing.++ A strategy of water-based security outposts, through the
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The latest strategy to deal with the Taliban has drawn praise from NATO but the lack of infrastructure in Pakistan casts doubt on its chances of success. ++ Indians welcomed the announcement from Richard Holbrooke that India “is the absolutely critical leader in the region” in relation to its role in Afghanistan. ++ They also have a significant role to play in Islamabad. ++ The instability in
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Future strategy in Afghanistan is being debated more strongly than before: more money, more soldiers, stronger European involvement, and negotiations with moderate Taliban. But the allied troops on site have to solve completely different problems first: obtaining fresh supplies has recently become the Achilles’ heel of the international troops in Afghanistan. More and more often Taliban forces
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On April 4 the Atlantic Alliance will celebrate its 60th birthday. ++ An apt occasion to review its tasks and raison d’etre with a changed décor and security challenges. ++ There are several issues to tackle. ++ It is clear is that Article 5 should remain at the core of NATO and new tasks and memberships should only take place if accompanied by an effective increase in the security
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After 43 years of abstinence France is returning to NATO. ++ President Sarkozy decided that France should “reintegrat[e] into all structures of the Atlantic alliance.” ++ The move brings France closer to the US and undoes de Gaulle’s refusal “to allow the French armed forces to submit to US command,” stirring criticism from both “old-guard Gaullists”
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Secretary of State Clinton’s European trip set out the seriousness of the Obama administration’s commitment and marked a new era of transatlantic relations. ++ The tête à tête between Clinton and Lavrov — symbolized by a button representing the resetting of soured relations given to the Russian Foreign Minister — confirmed that both countries want to cooperate on the Iranian,
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The argument that France would lose its diplomatic freedom and image of independent power by re-integrating into the military structure of NATO is unfounded. ++ It would assure France a better defense of its national interests. ++ NATO is a consensus based alliance and every country’s view is considered in the decision-making process. ++ More importantly, NATO is about to delineate a new
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The small glimpse of hope of potential Russian-US cooperation on curtailing Iran’s nuclear plans disappeared after an unsuccessful meeting between Russia and the US. ++ Obama stated that Russia would not determine America’s missile defense plans. ++ Although a setback, the statement is not without purpose; if not said Russia would have achieved its aim of creating a wedge between
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When France left NATO’s permanent command structure 43 years ago, it was confident in its decision. ++ Contemporary realties —the financial crisis and the need for transatlantic cooperation in light of a slowly emerging multipolarity— combine to call for a stronger French presence. ++ France’s return to NATO would better serve French domestic interests, advance the
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The deployment of an additional 17,000 US troops in Afghanistan is a welcome response to the enduring threat of the Taliban. ++ Military might alone, however, is no solution: “defeating the insurgency means understanding it.” ++ State-building and incentives to deter opportunistic insurgents are needed. ++ Pakistani talebanization must also be urgently addressed and the government’s
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As Kosovo celebrates one year of independence, progress in the new state can be best summed up with a “so-so.” ++ While violence has been held at bay, reconciliation between Serbs and Kosovans remains a long way off. ++ NATO and EU troops continue to maintain security, unemployment is high and economic development is stunted. ++ All of Europe should recognize Kosovan independence; after that,
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Sarkozy’s decision to rejoin NATO’s military command is the wrong response to the new era Obama has ushered in. ++ NATO remains an organization designed for the Cold War era without the legitimacy to take on a universal role. ++ Sarkozy is sending out a signal that France wishes to remain part of the “western family,” locked in a defensive mindset of yesteryear. ++
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NATO’s effectiveness is being jeopardized by a series of disputes over its purpose. ++ Proposals for a European army, supported by UK Defense Sec. Hutton, would deplete NATO and undermine its efforts. ++ The alliance is also threatened by disagreement over troop deployments in Afghanistan and the big question about eastward expansion and the accession of new states. ++ The organization
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The Munich Conference on Security Policy needs renewal. ++ In 2007 Putin declared the end of unipolarity here. ++ This year NATO seeks discreet dialog with Russia, but the focus will be on the seating of US and Iranian delegations. ++ The first contact between them for three decades may take place over dinner. ++ “You only see old men there,” says a female NATO diplomat. ++ The conference
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This year the international community could achieve a major breakthrough in the anti-drug war being waged in Afghanistan. The last two years have witnessed large surpluses in drug production resulting in falling prices and stockpiling of poppy seeds. A decline in poppy cultivated areas is expected for this year. James Townsend, UN advisor in Afghanistan, sees this a unique chance: strengthened
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A recent Taliban bridge bombing in Pakistan which cut off supply lines to NATO forces in Afghanistan has once again highlighted the vulnerability of passing through Pakistan. ++The US is, however, running out of luring alternatives; considering Russia as a substitute would require the US “to pledge that it will respect the Russian sphere of influence in the former USSR,” a guarantee Obama is
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NATO has become “a military alliance without any political clout” and is in the midst of an identity crisis. ++ The campaign in Afghanistan is suffering because of NATO’s lack of a political voice and a lack of cohesion between Brits and Americans ++ Its vacillation over granting MAPs to Georgia and Ukraine for fear of upsetting Russia is further evidence of its
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Two attacks against US and NATO convoys near Peshawar in Pakistan have taken place in the last week. ++ The Pakistani army appears to be testing Obama’s will. ++The US and NATO must take adequate steps to respond to these incidents. ++ It is an opportunity for them to acknowledge that the recent attacks in Mumbai were of global proportions and that it was a major mistake to fight the war
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A battle over ex-Soviet republics is taking place between Brussels and Moscow. ++ This quarrel is the subtext to the laborious negotiations over Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO and the EU. ++ The EU has shown a clear desire for greater “association” with its neighbors but refuses to start real talks for fear of angering Russia. ++ A European presence in the region is necessary to
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The British military are increasingly angered by the poor international effort to win over hearts and minds in Afghanistan. ++ British generals have been arguing for years that getting the population on side is the key to success. ++ A top official has called the UN’s support “wholly inadequate.” ++ Meanwhile, the Taliban are “winning the information war.” ++ As NATO screams for more
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NATO ministers meet this week to discuss a Membership Action Plan for Ukraine. ++ “Ukraine’s desire to join NATO is an aspiration to become part of the most effective system of collective security and to share joint responsibility for common space.” ++ Despite protest from Russia, Ukraine must be accepted as a vital ally - peacekeeping missions in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and
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Terrorism is not the key strategic threat facing the US and Obama’s focus on Afghanistan is misguided. ++ NATO’s overemphasis in 2005 destroyed the stable situation of 2004 and the more focus Afghanistan gets now, the harder it will fall after an inevitable withdrawal. ++ Troop increases distract attention from other pressing issues: monetary aid is wasteful and counterproductive,
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Western oriented, business friendly, and governed by smart, young people, Georgia is a country on the rise. ++ NATO should not be her final resting place, though. ++ Georgia doesn’t meet NATO requirements for full control of its territory and a closer look reveals its media is like Russia’s: state run and laden with propaganda. ++ “Georgia’s future is economic
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The hijacking of a Saudi-owned oil tanker is unprecedented but only part of the recent, dramatic rise in piracy. ++ Capturing pirates in not a major problem, but due process makes dealing with captive pirates more complex than in the 1700s. ++ Universal jurisdiction should be applied in this case, allowing any state to try and punish pirates. ++ States should then try them in military courts. ++
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One of Obama’s most trying tasks as president will be to redefine NATO, which lacks “a clear mission” and has “outlived its original purpose.” ++ The thorny issue of Ukrainian and Georgian accession will need to be negotiated with other NATO members. ++ NATO’s mission in Afghanistan is an “out-of-area conflict,” allowing members to decide what role,
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Seven years after the advent of Operation Enduring Freedom, the Taliban, al- Qaeda and various insurgents have regained strength particularly on Afghan and Pakistani soil. The fight for
security in the Middle East has spiralled downward as the Taliban have “established a new “safe haven” in Pakistan. Serious efforts to build a transparent, secure Afghan state with an intact justice system will
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Youth Atlantic Treaty Association delegates interviewed at their General Assembly held in Berlin in November 2008. The topics range from Russian relations to what Obama will ask Europe to do.
In this series of exclusive videos, atlantic-community.org has interviewed delegates and representatives of the Youth Atlantic Treaty Association (YATA), an association with 39 member organizations on each
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Obama’s proposed “mini-surge” in Afghanistan of some 15,00 troops will not provide enough personnel for the job. ++ Iraq, a smaller country than Afghanistan, required 700,000 soldiers and security forces; there are only 200,000 in Afghanistan. ++ Robert Gates will aid the Afghans in doubling their military size to 200,000, yet more will eventually be needed. ++ Investing American money, beyond
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“The ‘Great Game’ is no fun anymore.” ++ A timeout is needed in Afghanistan so that the players, including Obama, can draught a new deal. ++ A global effort to secure Afghanistan’s stability should be above other objectives. ++ Due to the complex global conflict, a solution cannot be reached without a “regional grand bargain,” which must include a comprehensive
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NATO countries disagree about the floundering mission in Afghanistan, but it is obvious the hardwearing Taliban cannot be crushed by military means alone. ++ More troops would not help keep control in rural areas, where the insurgency is strong. ++ This would prolong the use of air-to-ground bombing to target high-ranking insurgents, resulting in high numbers of civilian casualties. ++ Because
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“Old” and “new” Europe parallel the blue and red state split in the US. ++ In old (western) Europe Obama is viewed as a “ray of hope;” new (central and eastern) Europe raises the question, “Who is Obama?” ++ This can be attributed to a difference in threat perceptions. ++ Nowhere is this exemplified more than in Germany. ++ There, a proto-Kantian
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Russia’s invasion of Georgia is not an aberration - it demonstrates a pattern of aggression, one that now threatens Ukraine as Moscow embraces PM Yulia Tymoshenko. ++ Russia’s relations with Tehran, Syria, OPEC and most recently Venezuela all threaten US interests. ++ Western weakness, especially in Europe, is not an option. ++ Georgia and Ukraine must be brought into NATO; military cooperation
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Americans believed that imperialism could trump nationalism but the Afghans proved them wrong. ++ Foreign occupation of Afghanistan is triggering a backlash inside of the country, as well as destabilizing Pakistan. ++ There is a cascading opinion among US allies that this war cannot be won. ++ The Afghans have suffered enough and the US simply cannot afford an open-ended war. ++ Sometimes a war
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Violence, corruption and lawlessness keep pushing Afghanistan into a “downward spiral.” ++ Foreign troops are part of the problem; the US and the NATO focus on air attacks, “putting the life of occupation troops before civilians.” ++ A growing number of civilian victims intensifies the risk of terror attacks and hinders the country from establishing a stable system. ++ An
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Viktor Yuschenko, president of Ukraine, has called for another parliamentary election in hopes of settling internal divisions symbolized largely by Ukraine’s leading three politicians - Yuschenko, Tymoshenko, and Yanukovich. ++ This must be a Ukrainian election for Ukrainians. ++ Both Russia and the US (NATO) must keep their hands off. ++ Instead the EU should make Ukraine’s membership in the
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The West is “pushing away” Russia, not the other way around. ++ The US needs to see Russia’s point of view for a change. ++ At the end of the Cold War, there was “no move to meet Russia partway;” instead, the US “talked away” Russian attempts at integration with Western institutions. ++ Yeltsin looked like a puppet for trying to gain acceptance and Putin came to power as a result. ++ It’s time
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Even President Bush has now come to realize that Afghanistan is “the real frontline in the war on terror.” ++ America’s sixteen intelligence agencies agree that Afghanistan is on a “downward spiral.” ++ Sobering estimates say it will be five to ten years before Afghanistan is stabilized. ++ More troops are needed and if NATO allies are unwilling to send them, they should contribute monetarily.
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The Taliban are losing battles in Afghanistan but are winning the war. ++ The situation looks grimmer now than ever before. ++ The war looks it can’t be won, but we must keep trying. ++ NATO can’t win alone, but it should help the Afghan army defend its government - if it’s willing. ++ A civil war could possibly be a key step before being able to reach any kind of agreement
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NATO has lost itself in the in Caucasus conflict. ++ Medvedev has repeatedly outlined his plans for a EU security architecture - he views his country’s security interests neglected. ++ The EU has almost disqualified itself from diplomatic talks by blindly solidarizing with Georgia. ++ The acceptance of Georgia’s wish for future membership in NATO might be a slight to Russia ++ If NATO
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The British commander admitted that winning in Afghanistan is unlikely - reducing the Taliban insurgency to a manageable level may be the only realizable goal. ++ Northern ethnic groups, which account for 60% of the population, are backed by the US, but the Taliban are still the major political force for the Pashtuns constituting 40% of the people. ++ Foreign forces are fighting Pashtun
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US incursions into Cambodia, which led to its destabilization and the rise of the Khmer Rouge, should be remembered. ++ The same mistake is being made in Pakistan, where the dangers are far greater. ++ Undermining Pakistan does not help Afghanistan. ++ A new soft power approach is needed, as “Afghanistan cannot be transformed along Western lines” - a major factor, along with increased bombing
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Obama’s foreign policy proposals are too vapid; far from incipient or novel, we are subjected to his recycled ideas - which, albeit, were fresh when first espoused in the face of Bush dogmatism. ++ “These ideas have lost their oomph among discerning voters.” ++ Catching Bin Laden, sending more troops to Afghanistan, and unconditional support for Georgia are all calls from the neocon playbook.
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NATO is facing a wily and pitiless enemy in Afghanistan. ++ Taliban forces have reconstituted themselves into a formidable foe. ++ The transfer of nearly 5,000 troops from Iraq - where the situation is more dire than the Bush administration admits - to Afghanistan is “too few, too late, too slow.” ++ The British were unable to control Afghanistan in the 19th century, the Russians in
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Military victory in Afghanistan is achievable, but are we “willing to pay the high cost?” ++ Chura Valley in Uruzgan province is secure thanks to a Dutch reconstruction team, while in a nearby valley snipers reign. ++ This is a microcosm of Afghanistan. ++ ISAF is facing a new, resilient Taliban, drawn from diverse sources. ++ A military surge is needed to quell restive regions,
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If the US goes ahead with its plan to take the war on terror into Pakistan, Pakistani army will loose its credibility and may end up caught up between American troops and al-Quaeda.++ Weakening Pakistani army would backfire on the campaign against terror and make further attacks inside America much more probable. ++ Only the government in Islamabad has a full understanding of the situation on the
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In July President Bush decided to increase attacks by US forces against the Taliban in tribal areas. ++ This increase is in response to the Taliban’s growing strength in Pakistan, more attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan, and an increase in terrorist threats. ++ The US must find a way to balance its relations with President Zardari of Pakistan, and also continue its attacks against the Taliban
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International organizations are stretched to their limits and need reform. ++ NATO struggles to produce an effective strategy in Afghanistan, UN peacekeepers are dispersed over the globe, and the EU can only offer fledgling military support in any operation. ++ Yet, the EU and UN are in the best position to lead the much-needed reform of international organizations. ++ The UN has a critical
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The war in Afghanistan stands at a critical juncture; the Taliban-led insurgency is gaining in effectiveness and influence. ++ The US troop surge planned to counter this threat is no remedy in itself. ++ NATO should develop a national reconciliation program which would bring ex-Taliban moderates into politics. ++ It is also crucial that the number of Afghan soldiers doubles, their salaries rise,
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NATO’s failure to provide Georgia and Ukraine with a concrete Membership Action Plan was a grave mistake, as demonstrated in part by recent events in Georgia. ++ Both NATO and the EU, the latter meeting today to discuss circumstances in Georgia, must avoid further empty promises, and instead pursue concrete action. ++ The West should not isolate Russia, i.e., exclusion from the G8, but must
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A sharp consensus between Europe and the US emerged at the NATO summit that they can not deal with Russia as usual. ++ Regarding the question what to do instead, one answer could be: concentrate on Russian oligarchs. ++ They have close ties with Putin, but also operate globally and depend on Western capital markets, Western consumers and foreign bank accounts. ++ Beside measures such as denying
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Instead of demonstrating the noble character of NATO, the so called “good war” in Afghanistan is running out of control. ++ The death toll is rising inexorably, the security situation for aid agencies and women deteriorates and the local population is turning more and more against the Alliance. ++ The only way to resolve the conflict is to withdraw the foreign troops and start negotiating a
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NATO foreign ministers are meeting tomorrow in Brussels to decide on further actions regarding the crisis in Georgia. ++ To prevent further instability, they should reassure those members who fear Russia that atlantic mutual-defence commitments are real and make new defense arrangements that would deter Russia. ++ They must also speed up the enlargement process and bring in Ukraine and the
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The EU’s attempt to develop a European Security and Defense Policy doesn’t mean it will compete with NATO. ++ Instead, NATO and EU complement each other. ++ Some countries in Africa or the Middle East would rather ask the EU for assistance. ++ On the other hand, NATO has the better capacities to manage certain long-term crises, e.g., when provoked by terrorism. ++ Military resources are only one
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This week’s events in Georgia proved the failure of the Western policy of belligerence towards the Kremlin. ++ It failed to take into account the complexity of the ethnic, religious, and nationalist structures in Georgia and even encouraged Saakashvili to challenge Putin. ++ As a result, the plans to enlarge NATO experienced a backlash, Russian neo-imperialism is strengthened and Georgia has
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Western support of Kosovo’s declaration of independence and NATO’s assurance of Georgia and Ukraine’s eventual Atlantic Alliance membership erode Russian influence on former states of the USSR. ++ Georgia pays a high price for adopting a pro-Western foreign policy and choosing new allies. ++ This intervention is a clear message to the West to stay out of what Kremlin sees as its
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Admitting Georgia and Ukraine to NATO could spoil the cooperation between Russia and the West. ++ If NATO decides to take in the two former Soviet republics, Russia might reciprocate by freezing its relations with the alliance which would be a lose-lose situation for all the parties involved. ++ We must not let this issue cool the relations between NATO and Moscow. ++ NATO, Russia and the OSCE
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The recent escalation of violence in Afghanistan and the calls to divert the US troops from Iraq make the question of ending these long and costly wars even more urgent. ++ There is only one organisation that can provide the leadership necessary to defeat the insurgencies and bring peace and stability to both countries: the UN. ++ US and its allies can never achieve these goals alone. ++ Only the
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Hopes for friendly relations with Russia, running high in the 1990s, were ruined by the Bush administration. ++ NATO membership offer to Georgia and Ukraine and plans to install elements of missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic have fuelled Russian paranoia about strategic encirclement. ++ We need to understand that Russian foreign policy is shaped by their hunger for respect
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Rather than focusing on force levels, debates about burden-sharing within NATO should look at “defense transformation, operations, and the wider context of the international community’s efforts.” ++ While burden-sharing faces many challenges, more equality is possible through common funding, “transformation efforts to increase the pool of usable and deployable forces,” and increased multinational
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Despite the presence of over 50,000 NATO troops and some 140,000 Afghan troops and police, the Taliban and al-Qaeda have gotten stronger over the past two years. ++ The Pentagon invested about US$16.5 billion in Afghanistan, but it still lacks a “sustainable strategy” for the development of an Afghan Army and the country’s police force. ++ Only two of 105 Army units, and not a
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France issued a White Paper on military reforms to meet the new challenges of transnational terrorism and nuclear proliferation. ++ Alongside the modernization and rationalization of its armed forces, France seeks to return to the NATO command structure and revive the idea of a common European defense policy. ++ The US no longer rejects the plan and has thus cleared the way for the formation of
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While the US and Germany would welcome full French participation in NATO, Sarkozy faces stiff resistance to the notion domestically. ++ The fact that French military representation in NATO “far exceeds” analogous French efforts in ESDP should be addressed. ++ The US should emphasize its role as partner rather than leader with regards to NATO, and “positional bargaining” needs to be avoided by all
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Some may be tempted to ignore Bush during his final tour of Europe, a US President on his way out does not need the same attention as one on his way in. ++ Bush’s presidency, however, has marked an epoch-making shift: the emphasis of US diplomacy moved away from stability concerns and toward the spread democratic freedom; an emphasis that is strengthening the Atlantic
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US diplomats will not exceed their offer - worth billions - to modernize Poland’s armed forces in exchange for the hosting of the anti-missile shield base on Polish soil. ++ Poland’s expectations are higher than what the US is prepared to offer and talks are now threatened with collapse. ++ Poland’s room for maneuver is limited by Russia’s easing of its position against the missile shield, NATO’s
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Russia is increasing military means in Georgia that show striking parallels with Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. ++ NATO members argue Georgia’s state of democratization needs to improve before they are willing to risk souring relations with Russia, but it is overlooked that much more is at stake here. ++ Despite EU and NATO bureaucratic considerations, Western help in general is
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Plans to build a US-proposed missile-defense shield based in Czech Republic and Poland has been met with feisty opposition. ++ NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Sheffer insists that missile defense is crucial for North Atlantic security in a world threatened by transnational terrorism and rogue states. ++ Public opposition in the Czech Republic represented in the government, Poland’s
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While Turkey’s judiciary, with support from its bureaucratic and military elite, threatens to disband the AKP, the US remains reluctant to take sides. ++ The US should realize that these anti-democratic groups are not necessarily more pro-Western, and formulate a clear pro-democracy policy towards Turkey. ++ Staying non-committal will be viewed by the majority of Turks as hypocritical pragmatism,
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The election of Nicolas Sarkozy was a source of hope for the future of Franco-American and transatlantic relations. Sarkozy made no secret of his intention to kick start a new era of French foreign policy and effect a radical break away from a forty year old Gaullist anti-American tradition, loyally held up by his predecessor Jacques Chirac. Now nearly a year has gone by since the proclaimed
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There is more to NATO’s enlargement plans than the official explanations imply. ++ “NATO is just a vehicle and another opportunity to extend its hard power globally” says Dan Plesch. ++ Regional dominance in former Soviet territory countervails potential return of Russian ambition. ++ NATO would gain influence over oil supplies, too. ++ Therefore Russian perception of threat by NATO
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NATO is threatened by growing protectionism, fear of terrorism, and the loss of faith of Europeans in values and institutions. ++ Its weakness prevents it from reforming. ++ Enlargement would enable promotion of western ideals the world over. ++ Since values override geography, Japan, Australia, and Israel should join now and others should be encouraged to, so as to effect democratic development
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European obstructionism of US proposals at the NATO summit exposes the EU’s division, weakness, and indecisiveness. ++ Energy dependency means that Russia has a de facto veto over EU security. ++ Suggesting the EU could mediate between the US and Russia is unrealistic. ++ A revival of Ostpolitik would impede NATO, increase Russia’s leverage, and lead to a deterioration of
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The traditional role of the state in Europe is diminished, therefore the capacity of EU governments to ask their people for sacrifices is reduced. ++ As the debate over using NATO forces in Afghanistan showed, EU governments are not able to live up to their obligations. ++ The European disillusionment with US policies has structural reasons and will continue after Bush’s presidency.
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By duplicating rather than completing the alliance’s functions, the Lisbon Treaty proposals on European defense integration damage NATO. ++ Since supranationalism would only further the EU’s democratic deficit, existing intergovernmental defense planning is preferable. ++ EU defense policy should be placed under NATO umbrella to prevent undermining transatlantic bonds and EU
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Few members at the Bucharest Summit acted to present the strongest military alliance in the world as “purposeful, tough and cohesive.” ++ “The Atlantic Caucus” is left to shoulder the biggest burden in Afghanistan and fill the “Eurogap” left by partners who fail to take the Taliban insurgency seriously. ++ Now NATO also suffers from a credibility gap due to members’ lack of resolve regarding
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Europe needs Russia for its oil and natural gas and Russia needs Europe for revenue from these resources. ++ This reciprocal relationship explains Europe’s opposition to granting Ukraine and Georgia NATO membership. ++ The issue of energy security is one of the few issues where central and eastern European countries agree with the US and are in conflict with Germany and France.
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Troops in Afghanistan amount to a mere 10% of the contingent needed. ++ Quarrelling over NATO policy issues is preventing gathering the necessary means to effectively tackle terrorism and the Taliban. ++ While French, German and Greek troops are comfortably in the North “where the main threat they face is boredom,” their politicians are willing to take charge, but not to shoulder the war’s
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For the sake of NATO credibility, the decision against MAPs for Ukraine and Georgia
needs to be reviewed within the year. ++ If Europeans give in, Russia may be able to prevent former Soviet republics from democratizing and westernizing. ++ But Russia’s victory in Bucharest could benefit transatlantic relations as it highlights the EU and NATO’s desperate need for American military support and
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The fate of NATO’s Afghanistan mission is strongly interlinked with developments in Pakistan. ++ Stability of both countries depends on an effective strategy to fight the Taliban/Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal border areas. ++ Taliban’s capabilities against coalition forces in Afghanistan are a threat. ++ Joint US-Afghan-Pakistan military intelligence centers and counter-terrorism operations are
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The first territorial war of NATO history in Afghanistan will be the hot topic at the Bucharest Summit. ++ NATO’s credibility seems tied to success in Afghanistan, therefore NATO governments should reach a consensus on new criteria for measuring success and failure. ++ Democratization and stabilization can be difficult to achieve and should not be measured on an all-or-nothing basis.
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Without a new strategic concept and comprehensive reform, NATO will continue to decline. ++ Allies need consensus on the use of non-self-defense military force and the meaning of “collective defense.” ++ NATO should be a functioning political organization and bring its relationship with global partners to a new level. ++ NATO members need to be willing to make difficult compromises.
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NATO has always been a two-tiered alliance in which some countries shouldered more burdens than others. ++ This fact will not change, but it also does not invalidate the significance of NATO. ++ A two-tiered NATO even has certain benefits for the US, especially since the Eastward expansion of NATO serves as a safeguard against Russia. ++ NATO’s future, if centered on sea power and not combat,
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Bucharest is the ideal opportunity to extend the NATO membership action plan to Georgia and Ukraine and further negotiations with Balkan states. ++ While rewarding and encouraging their effort of reform, this would enhance the stability, solidarity, and security of the region. ++ NATO integration and EU enlargement are inseparable and crucial steps towards the creation of a stable European
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British skepticism towards EU defense and opposition to “operational headquarters” for EU military missions may jeopardize Sarkozy’s plan to simultaneously increase the EU’s military role and obtain approval at home for full membership to NATO. ++ A compromise in the form of common headquarters for both NATO and the ESDP would put an end to a pointless rivalry while optimizing the work of both
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Most important task for the UN secretary general’s new special representative for Afghanistan, Kai Eide, is to form a relationship with President Karzai. ++ UN must be the primary coordinator for all organizations in Afghanistan. ++ Military and civilian efforts need to be coordinated, Afghanistan Compact needs to be supported, and Afghanistan’s neighbors need to help stabilize.
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The 100 plus democratic nations need to come together as a “League of Democracies.” ++ NATO and the EU must build an effective military. ++ A strong NATO and EU are in the interest of the United States. ++ Global warming and vulnerability to autocracies are the next international challenges. ++ The US must be a model country, leading the world while listening to and respecting its allies.
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With unilateral pull-outs of the Afghan mission threatening NATO’s existence, Europe’s security is also at risk. ++ EU members lack consensus both on matters of foreign policy and regarding a role for NATO in the future. ++ As a global security actor, the EU should bolster its military capabilities, drop its idealism, and commit itself to real objectives in Sudan, Afghanistan, and Kosovo.
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To remain a relevant alliance, NATO needs to adapt to both changes in the international order and evolving threats. ++ NATO requires a comprehensive approach, enhanced coordination with other civilian actors, and cooperation with the UN and the EU. ++ Jaap de Hoop Scheffer speaking at the German Marshall Fund Brussels Forum expects NATO to provide real results by accurately scanning the strategic
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Currently, NATO’s means are solely military. ++ Yet today’s most urgent task is to prevent crises by eliminating reasons for armed conflict, so force should be the ultimate resort. ++ To avoid becoming a hollow transatlantic alliance, NATO should adopt a global rather than a regional outlook, reinforce collaboration with the politically legitimizing UN, and especially work closer with members of
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Kosovo’s independence weakens international institutions, which have been waning in influence since end of Cold War. ++ UN and NATO unable to regulate international conflicts. ++ Weaker countries most likely to support international regulations, superpowers rely least upon international law. ++ Institutions can only function if set up to resolve concrete problems; standards can’t be created with
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Jan Techau and Alexander Skiba of the German Council on Foreign Relations criticize the German Government’s rejection of the US request for more German combat forces in south Afghanistan. There are at least three reasons for Germany to re-evaluate its current position: stabilizing Afghanistan is in Germany’s national interest; strategically it makes sense for Germany to carry more of
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Improved cooperation between NATO and other organizations is necessary in view of new security requirements, says David Yost, professor at the US Naval Postgraduate School.
A more productive joint performance is needed to work towards common goals such as preventing failed states becoming safe havens for terrorists. Yost therefore welcomes the comprehensive civil-military approach endorsed by
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An opinion poll commissioned by the BBC indicates that 54% of Afghans think things are going in the right direction, while 70% described their living conditions as good or very good. According to the poll of 1377 people from all 34 provinces of Afghanistan, 67% support or strongly support the presence of NATO forces.
Most striking was the apparent unpopularity of the Taliban – only 5% of
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The last 16 years provide valuable hindsight into the grand strategic approach of the United States and highlight the need to reshape American foreign policy around the principle of restraint, argues Barry R. Posen, director of the security studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Writing for the American Interest, he points out that US policy makers have struggled to
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Russia’s influence once again looms over the Baltic countries, and their position within the European Union and NATO is not mitigating the threat, argues International Herald Tribune journalist Adam Ellick. New Russian investments in media and infrastructure, coercive use of strategic energy sources, and instigation of militancy among Russian minorities have rendered Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy has reached out to the United States and is willing to bring France back into NATO, an offer America should seize, writes Dr. Ronald Asmus from the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and member of the Atlantic Initiative Advisory Board.
In 1995 Presidents Chirac and Clinton came close to an agreement, but sudden political changes threw France back
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As a community based on values, the West must strengthen its cohesiveness in order to grapple with the pace of globalization, and face a geopolitical axis actively shifting toward Asia, argues Stephen Szabo, executive director of the Transatlantic Academy, which is a partnership between the German Marshall Fund and the Bucerius Zeit Stiftung.
A division of the West could prove
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Kurt Volker, Prinicipal Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs discusses the status of the U.S.-NATO relationship and other transatlantic issues with State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack on October 29, 2007.
State Department
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Officials in Washington are confused and disappointed at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s decision to withdraw troops from Iraq and focus more on Afghanistan, reports Con Coughlin of the Daily Telegraph. Brown, who played a key role in the run-up to the Iraq invasion during Tony Blair’s term in office, is now refusing responsibility for the chaos in Iraq. Coughlin warns Brown and
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The US intention to extend parts of its missile defense system to Poland and the Czech Republic has ruffled feathers throughout Europe. The issue has been particularly divisive in Germany, where Merkel has tried to occupy the diplomatic middle ground by proposing a multilateral missile shield project under NATO auspices in its stead - a suggestion that the US has rejected. Daniel Möckli of the
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Higher engagement of the EU and the USA in the Black Sea zone could limit European dependence on Russian energy and bring stability to the region, writes Ronald D. Asmus of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The Atlantic Initiative Advisory Board Member points to recent developments, such as 9/11 and the enlargement of the EU in 2004, which have given the Caspian region and its energy
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The Euro-Atlantic Partnership lacks an effective venue for cooperative policy discussion. The NATO summit has therefore become the default forum for taking inventory of transatlantic outlooks. Franklin D. Kramer and Simon Serfaty of CSIS suggest a convergence of NATO and European Union member states under a unified “council.” The so-called “Euro-Atlantic Forum” would eliminate what the authors
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The creation of a legitimate US missile defense system requires a NATO framework, bipartisan support within the US, and Russian participation, argues Ronald Asmus of the German Marshall Fund. The Atlantic Initiative Advisory Board member sees danger of a new division into “Old” and “New” Europe unless these key elements are resolved. While influential US allies Angela Merkel and Jaap de Hoop
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Efforts to solve the Darfur conflict continually follow the same fruitless pattern, writes Daniel Allot of The Weekly Standard:
- The West pressures the Sudanese government to stop violations, while threatening sanctions.
- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir promises to meet the demands.
- The Sudanese government reneges on its promises without repercussions.
The result: Khartoum no
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Today’s security threats demand global military capability, argue Ivo Daalder of Brookings and James Goldgeier of George Washington University. International alliances should incorporate new partners that can share the increasing demand for troops and meet the new requirements for a secure global community. NATO’s membership should be opened up beyond the original cold war mandate prescribed by
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Former Polish Secretary of Defense Radek Sikorski vows that Poland will not comply unconditionally with the proposed US missile defense system in Central Europe. Russia’s recent deployment of missile batteries along the Polish border has placed Poland at the front lines of this conflict. Meanwhile, the faulty US intelligence during the lead-up to the war in Iraq and the EU’s $120 billion
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NATO troops should adopt three main policies in Afghanistan, says Rory Stewart. First, they should develop a more considerate approach towards tribal communities in order to distinguish between friends and “real” enemies; second, they should concentrate on highly visible infrastructure projects to regain the population’s trust; third, development projects need to be launched (e.g. from UN
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The US-Russian relationship during President Putin’s tenure has seesawed between mutual cooperation and confrontation, says Lionel Beehner of the US Council on Foreign Relations. The three main reasons for these recent tensions are the American intentions to establish an antimissile shield, expand NATO, and encourage the installation of pro-Western governments across Eastern Europe. Putin has
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