DATE:
NOTE NUMBER:
DATE=11/19/02
TYPE=Focus
NUMBER=8-
TITLE=NATO EXPANSION
BYLINE=Zlatica Hoke
TELEPHONE=202-619-0935
DATELINE=Washington
EDITOR=
CONTENT=
_
INTRO: In Focus today: NATO expansion. This Thursday and Friday (Nov. 21-22) members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will meet in the Czech capital of Prague. Zlatica Hoke reports the NATO summit is expected to launch a radical transformation of the 53-year old alliance.
TEXT: Seven countries are expected to become members of the Transatlantic Alliance at the Prague summit: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. For most people in these countries, formally joining the West represents the fulfillment of life-long dreams. Elena Pop Todorova, Bulgarian ambassador to the United States, says expectations in her country are running high.
TAPE CUT ONE - TODOROVA:
"Because NATO is not just a security organization. It is made up of countries which also share a certain life style. Because if you ask an ordinary Bulgarian where he would like to work or in what conditions he would like to work and with what wages, he will immediately give you as an example a western country: the (United) States or Germany or Belgium. In other words, there is this basic preference for the western life style and this is what prompts people to support this strategic choice."
TEXT: Eastward expansion is not the only issue to be discussed at the Prague Summit. Many people believe the political and military alliance, created after World War Two to provide a collective security system for ten West European countries and the United States and Canada, lost its purpose with the collapse of the Soviet Union - for many years its only threat.
Jeffry Simon, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, says the alliance was an excellent tool for the challenges of the Cold War, but could now become obsolete.
TAPE CUT TWO -- SIMON:
"I think many of us are concerned: is this hammer that we created 50 years ago - how does that hammer deal with the contemporary problems, in the global war on terrorism, etc?"
TEXT: NATO expansion and its post Cold War role have been the subject of endless debate on both sides of the Atlantic, especially after the terrorist attacks on the United States.
TAPE CUT THREE -- ASMUS:
"September-eleventh, planned in Hamburg, financed in Asia, carried out in Washington -- could have been carried out in Brussels, Paris London or Rome too."
TEXT: Ronald Asmus is the author of a new book on the North Atlantic Alliance titled "Opening NATO's door." He says while Russia is no longer a threat to Europe, terrorism, ethnic conflict, nationalism and corruption are the new challenges to NATO on both sides of the Atlantic. The Prague Summit has to start a discussion on how these challenges should be met.
TAPE CUT FOUR -- ASMUS:
"Six months ago if we had had this conversation, we would have all said the Prague Summit is about enlargement. Now people say its about transformation/adaptation. That's code for saying we are going to finish that enlargement agenda. But the real question is: can we take the mother-ship NATO and point it in a new direction so that it will start to develop capabilities to deal with these new threats."
TEXT: One of the most important questions to be discussed at the Prague summit is the creation of a new flexible NATO military force.
TAPE CUT FIVE -- ASMUS:
"It is the so-called NATO response force, which is a proposal to create -- for the first time -- the capability for NATO to go fight the next Afghan war, the next war like the one in Afghanistan.
TEXT: A possible war in Iraq is also high on the Prague agenda. Ronald Asmus says there are fears the current disagreement between the United States and Europe on that issue may weaken the alliance.
TAPE CUT SIX -- ASMUS:
"Obviously, this is the challenge of the day: whether the US and Europe can together define a common policy on issues like Iraq, which we don't have today. But the President (Bush) is going to go to Prague. He is going to make his case on Iraq. NATO as an alliance won't participate in a possible Iraq intervention but the administration thinks it will have the majority of NATO nations participating with it."
TEXT: Critics in the United States note few of the current candidates for membership have military forces that can contribute significantly to the new form of conflict. Take for example, the Baltic countries, says Professor Andrew Michta of Rhodes College, Tennessee.
TAPE CUT SEVEN -- MICHTA:
"What is it that they have? They have tried to train in preparation for peace operations. They make quite an issue out of the fact that they have deployed, indeed, on a number of occasions and have worked successfully with NATO peacekeepers. But let's keep that in perspective. When the Estonians tell us that they have deployed with K-4 (troops), we are talking about 21 soldiers and a second lieutenant with the Italian 'carabinieri' in Kosovo. It is important as a political gesture. It is not very important as the actual contribution to NATO."
TEXT: Some observers cite the importance of even minimal contributions, such as participating in NATO border defense, surveillance or peace keeping operations. Ronald Linden, professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, says he is more worried about the problem of corruption in some of the candidate states, notably Romania and Bulgaria.
TAPE CUT EIGHT -- LINDEN:
"Related to that and directly related to the NATO issue is not just domestic corruption, but trans-border crime: trafficking in drugs, in human beings and, as we all recently learned form the revelations in Bosnia and Serbia, trafficking in arms."
TEXT: (BEGIN OPT) Professor Linden says minority populations in some member countries could renew ethnic tensions in Europe.
TAPE CUT NINE -- LINDEN:
"For the first time after this enlargement, NATO will have within it a state which has a substantial Muslim minority; that is, the Turks in Bulgaria."
TEXT: Ronald Linden says in the event of a NATO-supported action against a Muslim country, the presence of minorities might complicate matters. (END OPT)
These are some of the issues facing the North Atlantic Alliance in its period of transition. Most analysts agree that without change and adaptation, NATO could eventually turn into a political debating club with little impact.
Author Ronald Asmus, one of the earliest advocates of NATO expansion to Central and Eastern Europe, says NATO has a future.
TAPE CUT TEN -- ASMUS:
"In the early (19)90-s, we wanted to integrate and stabilize as much of Central and East Europe as we could and that vision of Europe holding free, from the Baltic to the Black sea is now, really, for the first time in our grasp. I often say if Harry Truman could come and sit down with us today, he would look at the map (of Europe) and say: pretty good job, guys!"
TEXT: Ronald Asmus says a new, enlarged NATO has the potential to keep the peace in much of the world, just as a smaller alliance did in Europe. But its mission must be clearly defined to the satisfaction of both sides of the Atlantic. If the Prague Summit takes the appropriate steps says Mr. Asmus, the gathering could be the most important event for the North Atlantic Alliance since its birth.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
