DATE:
NOTE NUMBER:
DATE=11/19/02
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE= BUSH NATO SCENESETTER (L-O)
NUMBER=2-296612
BYLINE= PAULA WOLFSON
DATELINE= PRAGUE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
///EDS: PRESIDENT BUSH ARRIVES IN PRAGUE AT 3:30PM EST AFTER THAT TIME, THE INTRO SHOULD READ: "PRESIDENT BUSH IS IN PRAGUE FOR A NATO SUMMIT EXPECTED TO SET THE FUTURE COURSE FOR THE ALLIANCE." THE REST OF THE INTRO IS UNCHANGED AND THE TEXT WILL HOLD THROUGH THE DAY WEDNESDAY AS THE SUMMIT SESSIONS BEGIN ABOUT 3AM EST///
INTRO: President Bush joins the leaders of other NATO member countries this week in Prague for a summit expected to set the future course for the alliance. On the agenda: new members, a new rapid deployment force and some would say a new philosophy for an alliance born of the Cold War. V-O-A's Paula Wolfson reports from the Czech capital.
TEXT: One month and one day before the Prague summit, President Bush met with NATO Secretary General George Robertson and praised the alliance.
///BUSH ACT///
NATO is an incredibly important part of U-S foreign policy. I appreciate the alliance.
///END ACT///
The secretary-general returned the compliment.
///ROBERTSON ACT///
The president has shown not just by meetings with me but in every other way possible his and his administration's commitment to NATO and the strength of this transatlantic alliance that has bound together these democratic and freedom loving states.
///END ACT///
At the time, Mr. Robertson described the Prague meeting as "a transformational summit," perhaps the most important in the history of the alliance.
It is a transformation that began with the end of the Cold War, and gained momentum with the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Just days after hijacked planes rammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, NATO voted to invoke its charter and help defend the United States. The Bush administration thanked the alliance, asked for NATO help with surveillance flights over the East coast, and then proceeded to launch a war on terrorism outside the structure of the alliance.
///START OPT DAADLER ACT//
It's fundamental change in the way we have conducted foreign policy particularly military policy for the last fifty years.
///END ACT ///END OPT///
Ivo Daadler is a policy analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He says the Bush administration does not want to pursue military missions through the confines of an alliance governed by concensus, and prefers to build coalitions with individual NATO members. He says the idea is to use NATO as a mechanism for coordination and joint training.
///DAADLER ACT///
The United States determines the mission. It then builds the coalition for that particular mission. It sees no value in having it built within an alliance structure because that is constraining, even though it gives you political and other benefits. And that is the future this administration particularly at the Pentagon sees for NATO.
///END ACT///
Others say President Bush simply sees the need to revamp the alliance so countries can respond more quickly and efficiently to the new threats of the 21st century.
Simon Serfaty is the Director of the European program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington:
///SERFATY ACT///
It is not a new unilateralism. It is a new kind of multilateralism which I believe is actually much better suited for the current conditions and it is in that context that NATO is being reorganized.
///END ACT///
At the Prague meeting the first NATO summit since the terrorist attacks on America - the alliance will take up the creation of a rapid deployment force which could be deployed outside Europe. Members will be asked to commit units with specialty skills that can be used in unique situations such as forces trained in dealing with chemical weapons or the special challenges of fighting in rugged mountains. Mr. Serfaty says NATO will become in his words "a coalition of coalitions."
///SERFATY ACT///
We are forming coalitions not only of the willing, but also the willing and the capable. And not only the willing and the capable, but also the willing, the capable and the relevant.
///END ACT///
Seven former Soviet bloc countries will get official invitations to join NATO in Prague following in the footsteps of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The second step in the expansion of the alliance will make headlines. But foreign policy experts say the biggest developments may get less fanfare: the creation of the rapid deployment force, and the continued evolution of the alliance in the post Cold War world. (signed)
NEB/PW/MAR
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