1/2007

English version

NATO: a New Role to Explain
ENRICO LA LOGGIA, President of the Italian Atlantic Committee
 
When the foundations were laid for the creation of the Atlantic Alliance sixty years ago, the political debate on the usefulness of such Alliance had to be accompanied by a wide awareness raising campaign on public opinion in both founding and to-be member Countries.
Post-war disasters – which would substantially prevent any Country, including the USA, from planning their future “by themselves” – along with the fact that the world – and Europe in particular – had been divided into two opposing blocs, made the public approach to Atlanticism easier, on the one hand. On the other hand, some significant exceptions were raised: in Italy, the presence of a strong Communist Party only allowed the country to enter the Atlantic Charter after a dramatic head-on collision between opposing factions both in Parliament and outside.
Today, while the NATO role is being thoroughly redefined following the end of the Cold War and above all, due to the wild assault the free world is suffering by international terrorist organisations, further attention should be paid by member Countries’ citizens in understanding the importance of supporting the Alliance’s existing and new objectives.
In this perspective, each national Atlantic Committee - and in particular, the Italian Committee which I have been honoured to represent for two years, may play a vital role. Since the beginning of my office, I had a clear head on the importance of planning a set of initiatives which should not focus on the history of NATO, notwithstanding its glories, but rather on its present and future, when it will acquire an increasingly leading role in the defence of freedom and democracy which are among NATO’s fundamental components.
Therefore, on the national level we intensified the frequency of conferences at both schools and Universities, as well as exchange activities with other organisations dealing with international issues. On the international level, we are promoting a set of cooperation initiatives with the Serbian Atlantic Committee so that it may support the spreading of awareness and thus the entry of the Alliance in such a strategically significant Country, located in such a problematic area as Balkans.
The revival of “Occidente” – the valuable historical magazine edited by the Committee which publication has been unfortunately interrupted for a few years – should be considered within the frame of this comprehensive training and spreading campaign. Bringing the magazine back to life has implied a huge effort for all of us, but we are confident that we will be well paid off. Right from this first issue, in fact, we are publishing articles and editorials in which some among the most critical events in current international scenario have been thoroughly analysed and which will surely attract more and more readers over time.
To such pursuit, I would like to thank NATO General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and President of the A.T.A. Robert E. Hunter. Their contributions to this issue of “Occidente” are not just simple – though highly regarded – salutations, but rather extremely interesting reflections for both the issues covered and the editors’ authority and role. However, they represent an excellent omen for the future of this magazine, which sets off again today with full ambition.
 
Occidente reports on NATO faced with the low cost security challenge
PAOLO GUZZANTI, Executive Director of Occidente
 
The world scenario is completely new and military and political needs have changed while member Countries close their wallets
 
This first issue of the new series of Occidente is released during a phase of marked uncertainty at international level also affecting the role and future of Nato. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation lived its history, and its original identity in the light – or rather in the murky shade – of the cold war to re-emerge with the ambition of a multinational security instrument already involved in several scenarios. While we are releasing this issue, which was drafted very quickly to give an idea of the novelties in terms of layout and contents that will be introduced in the near future, the global scenario has become even more complex and full of unknown values than during the cold war. Afghanistan is making the headlines again as the war continues. Iraq has partly become an Iranian province and the US, with France and the UK, have frequently used the word “war” albeit in order to prevent it. A new cold war followed the murder of lieutenant-colonel Litvinenko in London and President Putin decided to react to an extradition request by resuming the threatening flights of strategic bombers, against which the new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown waves the new Typhoon aircrafts. The European military mission in Lebanon stopped the direct clash between Israeli and Hezbollah forces but was powerless faced with the constant conflict between the forces controlled by Syria and government forces, while Israel conducted air raids over Syria to destroy its installations, allegedly transferred from North Korea. The situation in many former Soviet republics is critical because of the relations to Moscow and a continuing arm-wrestling over the future of Kosovo maintains a threatening future in the Balkans.
In the meantime, NATO started suffering from a difficult economic crisis: the countries participating for various reasons in the numerous peace-keeping missions – or in alliances like the one led by the US in Iraq – cannot spend more money to meet the needs of NATO after the decision was made to promote the creation of well-quipped small and medium-sized rapid deployment units. NATO, the European Union and the UN have de facto become three institutions that for various reasons can decide peace keeping operations or other kinds of operations and address their member states for funding. Tomas Valasek, an expert of the London Centre for European Reforms stated: “NATO and the European Union share the same problem. There are simply not enough troops. NATO asks for the commitment of the member states to the Response Force and at the same time more troops are needed in Afghanistan. NATO has reached the bottom, the Response Force is a luxury it cannot afford.” NATO deployed 40,000 troops in Afghanistan and 7,000 are still in Kosovo nine years after the alliance deployed its troops in the Serbian provinces, following the bombing aimed at stopping Slobodan Milosevic’s ethnic cleansing. At present there is a lack of everything, from logistics to helicopters, from camp hospitals to cargo aircrafts, not to mention that the number of troops necessary for a mission should be three times greater that the number set to allow turnover. Funds are not sufficient and the member states are resisting by claiming that they are already heavily involved. The prospect of a European military force, which at present is completely stuck after all, emerges again as a competitor of the response forces that NATO should acquire. This is a political, technical and military problem investing the geo-political scenario, because the expected evolution increasingly sees military operations conducted only by the countries which have devoted a meaningful share of their budget to the military sector, such as the US, or have resumed funding large expansion projects, such as the Russian Federation, which is planning a general comeback to the grandeur of the Soviet age, despite the traditional technological gap.
There are increasingly less countries belonging to historical alliances like NATO or ready to meet the needs of the UN, while asymmetric wars are on the increase, involving situations which, at least theoretically, call for the deployment of opposition or international police forces, in addition to numerous and paramount peacekeeping operations.
Occidente is back and undertakes to analyse and report on a situation that is constantly evolving and describe its prospects in detail.
 

ROBERT E. HUNTER, President of the Atlantic Treaty Association

 
The inauguration of this new journal, Occidente, under the auspices of the Italian Atlantic Committee, is an appropriate time to review the basic issues that now confront us all in the Western world. I have chosen to focus on the central preoccupations in the United States with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the more fundamental US preoccupation, surely for the next several years, with the Middle East as a whole. It is an honor for me to be able to present my views in Occidente and to salute the Italian Atlantic Committee for this undertaking. As president of the Atlantic Treaty Association, I am well aware of the intellectual, political, and practical leadership of the IAC, and especially of its distinguished Secretary General for the past 13 years, Fabrizio Luciolli. The IAC and Sr. Luciolli have set the standard for NATO’s many Atlantic Committees and are now, with Occidente, also setting the standard for discourse within the Alliance on critical issues facing us all.