The United States and NATO Since 911: The Transatlantic Alliance Renewed by Ellen Hallams

Author:Ellen Hallams [Hallams, Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, General, Political Science, World, Political Freedom, Security (National & International), Treaties
ISBN: 9781135224653
Google: 00GMAgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 17511787
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2009-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

United States 24,900

United Kingdom 8,300

Germany 3,460

Canada 2,830

France 2,780

Italy 2,350

Netherlands 1,770

Poland 1,590

All others - 33 states (including non-members) 8,440

Total 56,420

court now and we need to pick it up if we’re going to be seen to be responsible, effective allies of the US.

(BBC 2009)

Yet, as the last few years have demonstrated, continuing to lecture European allies on this issue is not a viable long- term option. One of the reasons the US has found it so difficult to generate the kinds of contributions they want from European allies is because the sharp decline in European public opinion towards US leadership since 2002 has made it that much harder for European governments to sustain public support for NATO’s ISAF mission. That 58 per cent of the German electorate wants the 3,500 troops Germany has in Afghanistan brought home, reflects the reality than in an alliance of 26 nations, all politics is local.

Both Obama and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates have recognised that such constraints cannot easily be overcome. As a result, the US shifted its strategy in early 2009, asking Europe to focus on what it can do, increasing funding and resources for civilian reconstruction. Putting more boots on the ground is but one element of what has to be an increasingly comprehensive approach, which fuses the ‘surge’ in troop increases with more funding and resources for promoting better governance, police training and economic development. NATO leaders also sought to rebrand the Afghan mission to reflect a growing consensus that achieving security and stability depends upon increasing engagement with Afghanistan’s neighbours, including Iran and Pakistan.

Such a division of labour, with the US, GB, Canada and the Netherlands continuing to bear the brunt of the military campaign while other allies step up civilian reconstruction and development efforts, may not be desirable, but it does reflect a pragmatic understanding of both the nature of alliance politics and what is required to ensure Afghanistan’s long-term stability. The reality that all politics is local should not – and must not – doom NATO to irrelevance. Instead, it must be made to work to NATO’s advantage by recognising and harnessing the different capabilities and expertise individual allies can bring to alliance operations, instead of engaging in endless – and futile – bickering and recriminations.

For all the many problems that have plagued NATO’s ISAF mission over the past few years, for this author, there is greater cause for optimism than pessimism. Many of the problems NATO is facing are not of the alliance’s own making; indeed, the weakness of Afghan president Hamid Karzai and the corruption endemic within the Afghan government have compounded what was already a daunting task. As Roberts (2009: 50) notes, for all the political bickering over who is to ‘blame’ for the difficulties of the ISAF mission, ‘A less blame-centred explanation might be that the reconstruction of Afghanistan, and the pursuit of counter-insurgency there, was always going to be an extremely difficult task’.

NATO remains the only viable mechanism for conducting such large-scale military

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