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NATO

• Vienna’s Neue Kronen-Zeitung, June 11, reported that the highest-level NATO conference in Austria so far will take place in Vienna this week under the aegis of Defense Minister Scheibner. Noting that in a dialogue with the Islamic world, politicians, generals and experts will discuss the struggle against terrorism, the newspaper quoted Scheibner saying: "This is Austria’s security policy contribution to NATO’s Partnership for Peace program." The article added that among others, the secretary generals of NATO and the Arab League as well as Gen. Ralston are expected to attend the conference.

• Amid warnings that President Bush’s planned new "strike-first" policy against terrorists and rogue states could cause alarm among America’s NATO allies, The Times notes that NATO has developed its own "strategic concept" for dealing with future threats, including international terrorism, but the language does not mention pre-emptive action. One NATO diplomat is quoted saying there were no plans at present to alter the wording of the Alliance’s Strategic Concept, agreed at NATO’s Washington summit in 1999. "We hope we won’t need to have a big debate on this issue," the diplomat reportedly stressed. The article speculates, however, that by the Prague summit, the United States may put pressure on the rest of the Alliance to update the text of the Strategic Concept to take into account the new circumstances after the Sept. 11 attacks. The newspaper considers that if the wording is not changed, it might be difficult for the U.S. to appeal for NATO support if the White House decided to take preemptive action against a terrorist state. "NATO diplomatic sources said the issue was likely to provoke a ‘hell of a debate’ in the Alliance," the newspaper asserts, adding that one diplomat questioned whether preemptive action would be justified if a potential enemy acquired weapons of mass destruction or only when it was clear that the enemy had the intention of using them. The sources reportedly said, however, that NATO’s Strategic Concept do not preclude preemptive action, even if it does not specifically authorize it. It would be a matter of interpretation.

A commentary in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 10, considers that NATO has embarked on a good path to regains its self-assurance.

According to the newspaper, the Alliance is beginning to draw the right conclusions from the shocking events of Sept. 11. NATO is ready to meet this challenge, not only politically, but also militarily. At their spring meeting, defense ministers asked the NAC to prepare a new initiative for improving the Alliance’s military capabilities for the meeting of heads of state and government in Prague at the end of November, the newspaper recalls. It suggests that the initiative should focus on the most important deficits of NATO’s European partners, include the clearest possible and concrete obligations of the individual member countries, and prepare a timetable for closing the gaps. In view of new threats, the Alliance also plans to fundamentally review its command and armed forces structures before the summer of 2003, the newspaper further says and concludes: By focusing on important questions of modern warfare, the Alliance is now finally beginning to tackle, with determination, the problem of a rapidly widening technological gap, which NATO became aware of already during the Kosovo conflict, between the United States and its European partner. After giving the matter considerable thought, most officials in Washington now seem to hold the view that, as before, NATO is of great value to the United States. It is now up to Washington’s European partners to act. With action and not words they must prove that they also value NATO, and demonstrate the political determination to enhance their military capabilities.

The Times reports meanwhile that in address to diplomats, officials and commentators at a Center for European Reform seminar in London, Richard Haas, Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, expressed the view that the transatlantic relationship will be different in the "post-post-Cold War world."

According to the newspaper, his thesis was that the main challenges within Europe have largely been solved, apart from continuing the enlargement and adaptation of NATO and the EU. "So there is less that the U.S. and Europe have to do together in Europe and more that they should do together beyond Europe," he reportedly stressed. He suggested that there is unlikely to be the cohesion of the past. Coalitions of the able and willing, "sub-sets" of NATO "rather than all 25 members expected in a year," are likely to take action outside Europe. The role of NATO will be to give political backing and to provide headquarters, logistic and intelligence support. Haas reportedly concluded that transatlantic institutions and rules need to be strengthened to handle global challenges in areas such as drugs, proliferation and "humanitarian intervention." But, he predicted, becoming global partners beyond Europe will be much harder than allying against the Soviet threat in the Cold War.

ANTI-TERRORISM

• According to the BBC World Service, reports from Morocco say three Saudi members of Al Qaeda have been arrested as they prepared attacks on American and British naval ships in the Straits of Gibraltar. The broadcast added that there has been no formal announcement from the Moroccan authorities, but, it noted, officials are quoted saying the three had been arrested in May with the help of the intelligence of several friendly countries. The men were reported to have links to Al Qaeda. Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, reportedly said the suspects planned to sail inflatable dinghies loaded with explosives alongside ships patrolling the straits. The suspects were planning to sail the dinghies from Ceuta and Melillia, the Spanish enclaves on Moroccan territory, the officials said. According to the program, the British Foreign Office issued a statement welcoming "the arrests if they involve individuals who may have been planning terrorist attacks against UK assets." The British Defense Ministry said, however, that it had no knowledge of specific threats to Royal Navy. The program added that a French judicial official Monday confirmed the existence of "an anti-terrorist police operation in liaison with western interests in the Strait of Gibraltar."

Looking at Europe’s stance on the war against terrorism, the Financial Times writes that Europe is still fixated on achieving internal unity to prevent war. It does not take external dangers seriously enough.

Europe has long been waiting for a chance to assert itself as independent from the U.S. on the world stage. Now the Cold War is over, that political opportunity has arrived, and Europe wants to seize it. But it cannot put forward a single strategy for the war on terrorism—its nation states still hold sway over foreign policy, says the newspaper. Instead, Europeans give vent to a thousand criticisms. Europe has placed so much faith in the notion of a united continent as its salvation that it tends to regard threats from abroad as an annoying distraction from its unifying work, notes the newspaper and adds: "This attitude is understandable, given the history of the Cold War. Europe’s mind is still fixed on the ideal European state, one that recognizes the wrongs of the second world war and one that will not be bossed around by the U.S. It values multilateralism precisely because multilateralism has institutionalized its new authority on the world stage, an authority painfully gained over 50 years. This last point, while not often articulated, is perhaps the most important. From the U.S. point of view, though, Europe is acting like an ostrich, ignoring the bitter reality that terror’s arm will strike it too. But Europe and America are in this battle together. It would be a tragedy if it took an attack on their home soil for Europeans to recognize that."

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