Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

12 May 2003

NATO

• According to Reuters, Defense Minister Szmajdzinski told a radio interview Monday Poland will seek NATO help in administering a military zone in post-war Iraq. “NATO help could involve operational plans, intelligence and setting up communications systems,” he reportedly indicated. However, he rejected reports Poland was mulling ceding control gradually over its planned “stabilization zone” to NATO because it lacked the resources and experience for the job. Szmajdzinski is further quoted saying Poland would take charge of the “upper-southern” zone of Iraq between Baghdad and Basra. Gen. Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, Poland’s former envoy to NATO, would be appointed commander of the zone, he added. Earlier AFP reported that U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Myers will visit NATO headquarters Tuesday but no announcement seems imminent about a NATO role in Iraq. The dispatch noted that suggestions for what exactly NATO could do in Iraq are wide-ranging: from a minimalist planning role to a fully-fledged peacekeeping role on the lines of ISAF. Claiming that NATO is watching closely talks on a multinational stabilization force, which could divide Iraq into three zones to be overseen by the United States, Britain and Poland, the dispatch added: “Diplomats say Poland might particularly need help, given the size of its armed forces and economic woes. One of them said: ‘If the Poles were to come and say we need NATO involvement of course we would say yes.’”

In a contribution to the International Herald Tribune, NATO Secretary General Robertson stresses that as the dust settles after Iraq, it is time to take stock of the impact on the Alliance.
“My conclusion,” he writes “is that recent events have proved that there is no substitute for close and active cooperation between Europe and North America. If we are able to carry the peace and security built in the last century into the next, the only credible vehicle is still NATO.” Lord Robertson observes that during 2002, two of the most profound changes occurred in postwar security: the building of a working partnership of equals between NATO and Russia; and the agreement that NATO should be prepared to operate beyond its traditional area of responsibility in Europe. He also remarks that “we are pressing ahead quickly with NATO’s new Response Force, which will ensure that all NATO allies can contribute effectively to the most demanding military operations.” Stressing that the decision of April 16 that NATO will, from August, take responsibility for ISAF is “a watershed, as important as the first NATO involvement in the Balkans,” Lord Robertson continues: “We are putting NATO’s new Prague blueprint into practice…. It is now seen as natural for NATO foreign ministers to look beyond Afghanistan to consider a possible role for the Alliance in post-war Iraq…. There are no decisions yet but no NATO country is ruling a role in the right circumstances. This is hard-nosed, pragmatic multilateralism in action by an Alliance that has dramatically adapted and transformed, and is now demonstrating that it can deliver when the going is at its toughest.”

U.S. TROOP BASING

• The United States is determined to shift the focus of its military presence in Europe from Germany to the regions of the former Warsaw Pact—primarily to Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, which were ready to provide assistance in the Iraq war, wrote Welt am Sonntag, May 11. “As Gen. Jones announced, the decision is to be taken in September,” said the newspaper, claiming that “the reduction and relocation of the U.S. force contingent is being regarded as the biggest change since the establishment of NATO 54 years ago.” The article continued: The “marching off” of a major part of the 68,000 soldiers from Germany should provide a fundamental geostrategy thrust and adjust the military presence and logistical capacities to the new crisis scenarios, which since 1991 have been shifting from Europe to Western, Southern and Central Asia. This thrust not only affects Germany but also the majority of the 112,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in Western and Southern Europe and their 499 facilities.

BRITAIN-DEFENSE

• According to The Times, RAF chiefs are facing a battle to save the Eurofighter aircraft program from cutbacks. The article recalls that the British government’s plan at present is to commit to 232 fighters. RAF officers insist that the figure of 232 was worked out carefully on the basis of agreed strategic requirements for the future, it notes. But, it adds, after the lessons already being learned from the war in Iraq, there are some senior figures in the Ministry of Defense who believe it is no longer necessary to buy so many. “Close air support for troops on the ground was “the way forward” for future wars, defense sources said, and this would mean a reduced requirement for air defense aircraft,” continues the article.