The Marketing of War in the Age of Neo-Militarism by Kostas Gouliamos Christos Kassimeris

Author:Kostas Gouliamos, Christos Kassimeris [Kostas Gouliamos, Christos Kassimeris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415853774
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2013-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

EPILOGUE: NATO 2020

At its Strasbourg-Kehl Summit in April 2009, the North Atlantic Council decided to develop an NSC to replace that approved in 1999 and accordingly tasked the Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to convene a group of experts to prepare a report that would be the base for the discussion among the member states. Last May, this group, headed by Madeleine Albright, published its report, titled “NATO 2020” (NATO 2020, 2010).

The necessity of the NSC is undeniable, as the report notes in stating, “The time is right to take a fresh look at the Alliance's missions, procedures and plans.” This view is based on the fact that the world has changed sig-nificantly since 1999, with the attack on 9/11 through to the new risks and threats that have since been taking shape. However, it should not be forgotten that if an NSC is to make sense, the most significant change is that which has occurred in the foreign policy of the United States under the new administration. Improving mechanisms and policies of the Alliance would not be possible if the United States kept giving priority to the ‘coalition of the willing’ over acting with the existing international institutions. The report also states that the Alliance needs an NSC, “but it does not require wholesale change.” This is true given the situation inside NATO, but it might be added that very radical changes are not possible either because of the fragile balance between the EU and the United States. There does not exist in Europe the consensus that would be necessary on many issues nor does the United States have a sufficiently precise idea of the most appropriate mix whereby the Alliance might be somewhere between a military instrument and a forum of international stability.

Although the objective of the report was to develop a first draft of the future NSC, it does examine all the issues involved: threat analysis, missions, tools and capacities and future partnerships. The aim of the report was to have an independent assessment by a group of experts, while keeping in mind the diverging points of view within the Alliance (on role, importance of missions, partnerships and relations with Russia) and to find ways around the difficulties associated with these divergences. NATO followed an identical process in 1967 with the Harmel Report (North Atlantic Treaty Organization 1967).

NATO's threat analysis draws conclusions about the current international situation in terms of two perspectives: geographical tendencies (mostly global and regional at the level of Europe) and specific risk factors. For their threat analysis, the authors of the report drew on the work of the Multiple Future Projects developed in 2008 and 2009 within the NATO Allied Transformation Command (ATC).

Seven risk factors are identified:

• Proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction;

• International terrorism;

• Persistence of disintegrative regional, ethnic and religious rivalries;

• Increasing global reliance on potentially vulnerable data systems;

• Competition for energy and other strategic resources;

• Demographic changes that could aggravate global problems such as poverty, hunger, famine,

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