Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

16 April 2003

ISAF

• NATO ambassadors agreed Wednesday to provide an Alliance peacekeeping role in Afghanistan, by offering to command the current deployment of troops there, reports AP. According to the dispatch, NATO officials said the 19 Alliance members agreed to requests made by Germany, the Netherlands and Canada that NATO should take a role in running a command headquarters for the ongoing 4,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. An Alliance official, who asked not to be named, is quoted saying the new NATO role would add stability and maintain continuity. “There was a growing problem in having to switch command every six months, and there are only a limited number of nations that can lead such a mission,” the official reportedly stressed. The dispatch adds that as part of the role, NATO will send military personnel to run the military headquarters in Kabul and will provide a military commander to run the operation, which will be appointed by Gen. Jones. However, the dispatch notes, the operation will not be under a NATO flag, but will remain under the UN’s sanctioned ISAF. Officials are also quoted saying that non-NATO military forces will be invited to contribute. “NATO agreed Wednesday to take command of ISAF in Afghanistan this summer, in its first ever ‘out of area’ mission,” says a related AFP dispatch. The dispatch observes that NATO is currently undergoing a radical transformation, from a Cold War-era bloc whose actions have been geographically limited to a post-Sept. 11 force focused on threats worldwide. Noting that Alliance ambassadors asked their military experts on April 2 to study how the Alliance could “maximize” the Alliance’s role in Afghanistan, the dispatch adds: “(Gen. Jones) said last month that the Alliance was ready to play a leading role, if called upon. ‘I am quite sure that NATO assets could be used, and could be used effectively,’ he said after talks with German Defense Minister Struck.”

Earlier, some media viewed how NATO might help transatlantic relations.
Against the background of reports that for the first time since the Iraq crisis Tuesday, President Chirac had called President Bush, the Washington Post quoted a senior U.S. official saying that cooperation between France and the United States on a range of issues is good and “the Afghanistan agreement” and the fact that “the French have also not said no to a NATO role in Iraq,” are positive signs.
“The time has come for reconstruction, not only of Iraq, but also of the transatlantic relationship,” said an editorial in Liberation, adding: Troubles in Baghdad, in Mosul, as well as with the Shiites in the south, difficulties with a divided opposition as well as the difficult conversion of supporters of the former regime suggest that a stabilization force will be needed in Iraq for the long term, as in Afghanistan and Kosovo. In the short term, this force could be made out of U.S. and British soldiers. But one can hardly see how the UN could take over that mission later on. The hypothesis of a NATO involvement has not been rejected by France, which has now accepted such an involvement in Afghanistan. If one wants to have multilateralism in post-war Iraq and see the UN play a central role, a NATO force could offer the chance of re-uniting divided allies in a peacekeeping operation.
In a similar vein, former SACEUR, retired Gen. Clark argued in a contribution to The Times that NATO provides a real opportunity for transatlantic reconciliation. Through work on policy issues and minor problems, dialogue about potential roles in Iraq, discussions of force structures, and meetings at the ministerial level, nations could bridge misunderstanding and forge new cooperation. NATO provides the working groups and bureaucracies that can serve as “consensus engine,” Clark wrote. But, he continued, NATO is nothing more than the product of its member states. For NATO to have continuing significance, Washington will have to seek NATO support—and that means consensus—and NATO participation in its most important security challenges. This will also require the Europeans to view the challenges as equally grave.

OPERATION DISPLAY DETERRENCE

• Reuters writes that with the war in Iraq effectively over, NATO said Wednesday it would withdraw its Patriot air defense missile systems and AWACS from Turkey. “The NATO military authorities have assessed that, as the probability increases that Iraq can no longer generate the military capability to threaten the security of Turkey … a phased withdrawal of NATO forces committed to the defense of Turkey is militarily appropriate,” the dispatch quotes NATO saying in a statement. AP recalls that the deployment, dubbed “Operation Display Deterrence,’ included four AWACS which are joint NATO assets, along with four Patriot systems and over 100 missiles. AFP notes that the decision was taken by the DPC, and stresses that according to a NATO spokesman, “the decision is with immediate effect.”

IRAQ

• According to AP, several European leaders meeting in Athens Wednesday suggested they may send troops to help stabilize Iraq. The dispatch also reports that on the margin of an EU summit, at which Cyprus, Malta and eight East European nations signed their EU accession treaties, UN Secretary General Annan held a fast-paced series of meetings on Iraq.
  
  
• Italian media report that the Italian Parliament has voted to deploy up to 3,000 military personnel in Iraq to help restore order and provide humanitarian aid. La Repubblica says an advanced party would leave next Tuesday or Wednesday with the rest of the troops leaving within two to three weeks.