Military

SHAPE

¨         SHAPE was set Wednesday to host a force generation conference for ISAF 3, reported Brussels' Belga news agency Nov. 26.  Citing reliable sources, the dispatch said the conference was taking place in the wake of the Prague summit, where NATO declared itself ready to provide support in certain areas to the next two leading countries of ISAF.  NATO sources said this support consists in force generation, the process which consists in harmonizing requests and offers by contributing countries, logistical and planning means, exchange of information and communications, said the dispatch.  It observed that having generated the peacekeeping forces operating under NATO command in the Balkans,  SHAPE has experience in this field. 

NATO

¨         "The first and only NATO headquarters on U.S. soil, Norfolk-based SACLANT, will from now be called Allied Command for Transformation or ACT.  Its primary mission will be to help NATO members improve their military technology. The changes came out of the Prague summit.  The Norfolk command will no longer be an operational command. That responsibility will go solely to . SACEUR.  In addition, NATO's Standing Naval Force Atlantic . will now answer directly to SACEUR," writes Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.  The newspaper quotes SACLANT, Adm. Forbes, saying that despite the changes, the command will not suffer a loss of clout.  "If anything, this is a huge step forward that provides the SACLANT command, or whatever it is going to be termed in the future, with a very exciting set of prospects for what is going to bring to Alliance business and thinking over the next century," he reportedly said.  According to the article, he said about 400 U.S. and allied officers currently make up the command in Norfolk and that number should remain the same.  However, a small contingent would go to SHAPE to maintain a "footprint" for the command there. With the NATO reorganization, the Norfolk command "will be responsible for developing a joint and combined war fighting concept for the Alliance," Adm. Forbes reportedly added.  While the changes will take about two years to complete, he expressed hope that the command would begin to deliver results by this summer.  As the Joint Forces Command works to transform U.S. forces for new jobs, so must the ACT command do the same with NATO, he stressed, adding that it is vital to bridge the technological gap that has widened over the years between U.S. forces and others within NATO. 

Interest in post-Prague NATO appears to be growing.

In a contribution to the International Herald Tribune, Ronald Asmus, a senior trans-Atlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, writes that last week's festivities need to be followed by steps to show that the Alliance can remake itself to address the strategic challenges of our time.  He suggests that a post-Prague agenda for NATO should involve it directly in winning the war on terror in the following three areas:  Afghanistan--  NATO should set for itself the goal of a step-by-step takeover of the Afghan security force over the next two years.  Iraq--The Alliance should initiate internal contingency planning for allied forces to play a central role in a post-Saddam security force should it be required.  Such a step, Asmus says, would reinforce current diplomatic efforts to get Saddam to disarm peacefully.  The Middle East-- If a fragile peace settlement is actually reached, "who better to help monitor and enforce it than NATO?", asks Asmus.  The United States and Europe are going to end up together in these new conflicts in the greater Middle East, because that is where the real problems come from.  Whether leaders are smart enough to come up with a framework in advance to organize such cooperation remains to be seen, Asmus concludes.

In the Washington Post, Christopher Dodd, democratic senator from Connecticut and a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, opines that missing from the Prague summit were any discussions or proposed solutions to the biggest challenge faced by NATO today:  reconciling an expanding membership with the ability of the organization to act cohesively and expeditiously.  Military reforms necessary to deal effectively with the new threats will prove meaningless unless NATO also reforms its policy and decision-making structures, Dodd argues. 

ESDP

¨         The Daily Telegraph reports that in a move that has alarmed the British Foreign Office, France and Germany have put forward a joint plan for a Euro-army with an "integrated command capability" and a "European Armaments Agency."  According to the article, the Franco-German plan envisages something far more ambitious than the limited peacekeeping and humanitarian missions of the EU's Rapid Reaction Force.  Under the Franco-German blueprint, the article continues, there would be a unified system of military training and a shared strategic doctrine.  The document talks about establishing "multinational forces with integrated leadership capacities, regarding of their NATO actions."  It also talks about "harmonizing military needs planning."  The article insists that the proposals, which are to be submitted to the defense working group of the Convention on the Future of Europe, alter the character of EU defense and threaten the current link between the EU's Rapid Reaction Force and the NATO command structure.  It claims that the document proposes letting an advance guard of EU states form their own defense corps, backed by the EU institutions under a mechanism known as "enhanced cooperation."  Decisions would be made on the basis of qualified majority voting.  According to the article, the Foreign Office is concerned that under the Franco-German proposals new structures would be created among a few EU nations that would be seen as alternatives to those in NATO.  These would then become the embryos for a new European defense structure. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Nov. 26, wrote that Germany and France will do what they can to develop-at the level of the EU-" a global vision of its security" so that the EU can react more appropriately to the new threats such as international terrorism and other risks.  The foreign ministers of the two countries propose to further develop ESDP into a "European Security and Defense Union."  This term, which was first used by Foreign Minister Fischer has now been accepted by Paris.  The French government also agreed to the phrasing-which is important in Germany's view-that the further development of ESDP "should contribute to strengthening the Alliance's European pillar,"  said the article.

IRAQ

¨         AP reports Chancellor Schroeder said Wednesday that Germany will grant U.S. military forces overflight and transit rights and unimpeded use of their German bases in case of a war on Iraq.  According to the dispatch, he told a news conference that the decision also applies to the forces of other NATO members, but Germany's intention to avoid direct military involvement remains unchanged.  He reportedly said the decision came in response to a U.S. request sent to Germany and asking what support it could give to any military campaign against Iraq.  The dispatch notes that the announcement followed a meeting of leaders of Schroeder's governing center-left coalition, including Foreign Minister Fischer and Defense Minister Struck.  A related AFP story reports Schroeder said Washington had also asked about German armored detection units against NBC weapons, currently stationed in Kuwait, but reiterated that it was only available for use in the wider war on terror and not for an attack on Iraq.  He reportedly gave no clear indication of Germany's answer to further elements of the U.S. request, which included military police, regional anti-missile systems and financial and material help for reconstruction after any war.