Military

SHAPE-DSACEUR

¨         "NATO has a new DSACEUR," writes Die Welt, reporting that new DSACEUR Vice  Adm. Rainer Feist took over Wednesday from Gen. Stöckmann.  The newspaper observes that lately Gen. Stöckmann increasingly advocated closer collaboration between the Europeans within NATO.  It adds that the general, who took up the DSACEUR post on Oct. 1, 2001, will now retire from active service.  The newspaper further notes that until recently, Adm. Feist was the deputy of the Chief of Defense in the Defense Ministry in Berlin.

BALKANS

¨         Britain is to pull 1,000 troops out of Kosovo immediately in what is bound to be seen as another preparation for war, writes The Daily Telegraph.  According to the newspaper, Defense Secretary Hoon said during a visit to Kosovo that Britain would hand over command of its Pristina-based headquarters to a Finnish general in March.  Plans put in place as a result of the improving security situation in Kosovo would reportedly see the number of British troops reduced to no more than a few hundreds in the province by next year.  The article stresses, however, that the British proposals came under immediate fire from UN and NATO officials, suggesting that there had been little discussion and that they were made at short notice in apparent response to the need to free troops for any Gulf War.  The officials reportedly argued that a British withdrawal was premature, potentially damaging to security, and operationally short-sighted.  The article adds that Hoon said increased security and stability in Kosovo means that Britain would begin reducing its troop strengths as part of a "progressive reduction."  Hoon declined to comment on numbers being withdrawn but defense officials said Wednesday that Britain's troop strengths in Kosovo could be reduced by up to 1,000 men by early November this year, the article further says.

IRAQ

¨         According to Reuters, French Foreign Minister de Villepin said in an interview Thursday that consensus in the UN Security Council on the disarmament of Iraq was France's top priority and France had an open mind about whether a resolution is needed for this.  "France's priority is to maintain unity and cohesion in the Security Council. This cohesion and determination from the international community is what ensured that Iraq budged on the issue recently," he reportedly stressed.  According to the dispatch, he acknowledged that a resolution could be useful to mark Iraq's acceptance of the inspectors' return and to spell out the practical arrangements

In a contribution to the New York Times, Jessica T. Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and former U.S. Air Force Gen. Boyd, now a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and president of Business Executives for National Security, advocate a system of coercive inspections to replace "the game of cat and mouse that Saddam Hussein has perfected."  They suggest that the Security Council should create a powerful, American-led multinational military force, the inspections' implementation force, that would enable the inspection teams to carry out "comply or else" inspections.  If Iraq refused to accept, or obstructed the inspections, regime change, preferably under a UN mandate, would be back on the table, they stress, adding:  "This force would be strong enough to ensure that inspectors see what they want, when they want..  A key is the establishment of both 'no flight' and 'no drive' zones in the region where an inspection is being conducted.  Air and armored cavalry forces would provide the ground strength..  The force would be provided with a complete range of reconnaissance, surveillance, listening, encryption and photo-interpretation capabilities, from spy-plane pictures to intelligence gathered on the ground..  Overall control would be vested in the civilian chairman of the inspection teams who would determine, without interference from the Security Council, what is to be inspected. The force commander would decide the size and composition of the detachment to accompany any particular inspection and direct its employment."  The authors conclude that this would not be easy as a military mission, but it would be less difficult than a war and more likely to improve security. 

The Wall Street Journal observes that as the U.S. ratchets up threats of military action against Iraq, "NATO is conspicuously silent."  If the U.S. chooses to attack Iraq without involving NATO, it would mark the second time since the war in Afghanistan that NATO remains on the sidelines of a major conflict, emboldening those who feel that the Alliance has outlived its military relevance and should stick to lower-profile political tasks, the newspaper stresses.  It notes that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld will talk about Iraq with his NATO counterparts in Warsaw next week.  He also is expected to present U.S. proposals for a NATO rapid reaction force that would deploy to conflict areas on short notice.  But, adds the article, the proposal is not directly linked with Iraq, but is part of the U.S. effort to transform the Alliance to be able to deal with new threats.

An Op-ed in the Wall Street Journal considers meanwhile that the first casualty of the Bush administration's hawkish stance toward Iraq may yet be the latest attempt to bring to life a common European foreign policy. Institution reforms pushed by Brussels often look like a poor substitute for real policy backed by political will, says the article.  Stressing that  even the French daily Le Monde, "a traditional home for proponents of a united Europe," has noted that the most disturbing aspect of a show-down with Iraq is the total absence of strategic thinking in Europe about the menace presented by radical Islam and the dissemination of arms of mass destruction, the article adds:  "Globalization means the U.S. and Europe are more interdependent..  The banal truth may simply be that on important strategic questions, a unified Europe will usually be one with America.  The coming enlargement of the EU from 15 to 25 members-among them close friends of America-will only reinforce this tendency."

OTHER NEWS

¨         The Guardian reports Europe sought to resolve a long-standing dispute with Russia Wednesday by offering special transit arrangements for residents of Russia's isolated Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad after Poland and Lithuania join the EU.  Under proposals unveiled by the European Commission, inhabitants of Kaliningrad will reportedly be able to use a pass to cross EU territory once enlargement has taken place in 2004.  According to the newspaper, Russia's special envoy welcomed the so-called Kaliningrad pass plan as "a starting point."

¨         According to the Washington Post, the Bush administration has abandoned an international effort to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention against germ warfare,             advising its allies that the United States wants to delay further discussions until 2006.  The newspaper recalls that a review conference on new verification measures for the treaty had been scheduled for November.  However, it quotes U.S. Administration officials saying Wednesday that the treaty revisions favored by the EU and scores of other countries will not work and should not be salvaged. The article adds that the decision, which has been conveyed to allies in recent weeks, has been greeted with warnings that the move will weaken attempts to curb germ warfare programs at a time when biological weapons are a focus of concern because of the war on terrorism and the Bush administration's threats to launch a military campaign against Iraq.