Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

13 May 2003

NATO

• According to AFP, a top U.S. diplomat said in Moscow Tuesday that NATO will likely decide within the next two weeks to provide logistical support to Poland as part of a multinational stabilization force in Iraq. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the envoy reportedly said Poland has approached its NATO allies for support in logistics and intelligence. “Within a week or 10 days we will have a decision—a positive decision—for NATO to provide that support,” the diplomat is further quoted saying.

Under the title, “NATO military officials are ready for an operation in Iraq at short notice,” Financial Times Deutschland quotes Chairman NAMILCOM Gen. Kujat saying in an interview that NATO is ready to provide rapid assistance in Iraq and “as soon as a member nation asks us, the topic will be on the agenda.”
Although the United States has so far shown only little interest in the integration of its partner nations via international organizations, NATO military officials count on a role for the Alliance in the rebuilding of Iraq, even if such role is initially limited to only a part of the country, the newspaper says and adds: “(Gen. Kujat) does not think that the Alliance could take over the lead role in the Gulf operation similar to the International Peace Mission in Afghanistan. ‘The situation is different from the one in Afghanistan,’ he said, adding that in Iraq a ‘supportive role’ was an ‘option.’”

In a contribution to the International Herald Tribune, Hans Binnendijk, director of the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University, and Anika Binnendijk, who wrote her senior thesis on NATO at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School , ponder how national leaders “can save NATO.”
They write: “Four measures would help. First, NATO can help with reconstruction in Iraq, just as it is doing in Afghanistan. Several NATO nations pledged forces for this purpose recently at a conference in London, but Germany and France were excluded. Poland has agreed to lead in one of five ‘sectors’ in Iraq, but it is seeking help from other Europeans. Germany has indicated that it would contribute if a UN Security Council resolution authorized the reconstruction. If Germany contributes, France might reconsider and contribute as well. With adequate flexibility on both sides, NATO might help heal its own wounds by healing those of Iraq. Second, NATO must fulfill the promise of the summit meeting in Prague in November and begin to close the trans-Atlantic military capabilities gap. At that meeting, heads of state agreed to create a NATO Response Force and committed to develop modern military capabilities. Both pledges are designed to begin the process of transforming European militaries for 21st-century missions…. NATO foreign and defense ministers need to reconfirm their commitment to the Prague goals during their meetings next month, and European militaries need to contribute highly ready forces to make the NATO Response Force a reality. Third, some changes are needed in the way NATO makes decisions. The current system is based on the predictable risks of the Cold War and the unity of purpose that accompanied it. Future threats will be less predictable and may require rapid responses in distant places. Discord within the Alliance means this is a difficult time to adjust the decision-making process, but some progress in this area could reassure critics that NATO has a role in a fast-paced global environment. A starting place would be giving NATO commanders broader contingency-planning authority. A bolder concept would be to pre-authorize subgroups within NATO to act on behalf of the Alliance with regard to potential contingencies. Finally, NATO should consider preparing a broad strategic review along the lines of the Harmel Report, which reunited a tattered NATO in 1967. NATO Secretary-General Robertson, is well suited to oversee such a healing effort. Two possible tracks for such a review might be fielding expeditionary military capabilities and forging greater consensus on how to deal with turmoil in areas of instability.”

• NATO and Russian officials Tuesday praised the spirit of cooperation between Moscow and the Alliance as the newly formed NATO-Russia Council met for the first time in Moscow, reports AP. The dispatch adds, however, that along with the mutual praise, Russian officials reaffirmed Moscow’s long-standing concerns about the possible deployment of NATO forces in new NATO member states, including former Soviet republics on its borders, and said the issue could damage arms control efforts. Russia reportedly also insisted that new NATO members sign the CFE treaty to prevent a military buildup near its borders. “We are concerned about the deceleration of the introduction of the adapted version of the CFE treaty and discussions of limitations on military deployment on the territories of new NATO members,” Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told the Joint Council. “If we fail to reach agreement … a dangerous gap may emerge between new geographical and military realities and the existing system of international arms control,” he added. Stressing, however, that the mood at the Council meeting was overwhelmingly positive, the dispatch quotes Ivanov saying the meeting was proof of a “common readiness to work for the benefit and security in the Euro-Atlantic region.” The relations between Russia and NATO are becoming one of the pillars of the international security systems, Ivanov reportedly opined.

BALKANS

• Moscow Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey quotes Gen. Nikolai Kormiltsev, Commander-in-Chief of Russia’s land forces, saying in an interview Tuesday that Russia will start withdrawing its troops from the Balkans on June 5. “We will begin withdrawing our peacekeeping force from Kosovo and Bosnia on June 5 and finish doing it by Aug. 1,” he reportedly said. According to the report, he said the current environment in Kosovo and Bosnia puts the focus on the maintenance of peace supporting structures and Russia will therefore be represented in the peacekeeping process by Interior Ministry officers as part of the international police force. In another article, Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey reports Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told a NATO-Russia Council meeting in Moscow Tuesday the Russian peacekeepers would leave the Balkans by rail and on board Russian Air Force planes. The Russian General Staff and the Land Forces Command are currently working on the implementation of President Putin’s orders on withdrawing the Russian peacekeepers from the area “in close coordination with our NATO partners,” Ivanov reportedly indicated.

U.S. TROOP BASING

• Gen. Jones is carrying out a reevaluation of the U.S. military presence in Europe and is expected to recommend that some of the American troops will move eastward from Germany. Bulgaria and Romania are the leading contenders for new U.S. military bases, claimed Bucharest’s English-language daily Nine O’Clock, May 12. The article noted that the countries’ Black Sea ports have already been used by the U.S. army during the war in Iraq. It also quoted Romanian Foreign Minister Geoana saying that moving East would allow the U.S. and NATO to better respond to “new threats coming from the greater Middle East.”

ISAF

• Reuters quotes an ISAF spokeswoman saying two soldiers serving with the force were shot and wounded Tuesday in the northern part of Kabul and were being treated in hospital. According to the dispatch, the spokeswoman declined to discuss the condition and nationalities of the peacekeepers and how they came to be wounded. But Gen. Afzal Aman Khan, deputy chief of Kabul’s garrison, reportedly said that the attack took place as ISAF peacekeepers provided security at the inauguration of a UN-funded school. He said a group of unidentified men drove past the school compound and opened fire on the peacekeepers. Kabul’s Radio Afghanistan, May 12, reported that at a meeting Monday with ISAF Commander Gen. Norbert van Heyst, Afghanistan’s President Karzai was briefed on the results of a visit the general had made to Brussels. The general explained that the command of ISAF is expected to be handed over to NATO on Aug. 1, noted the broadcast.

OTHER NEWS

• According to Reuters, UN Security Council members intend to create a new peacekeeping mission in the Ivory Coast on Tuesday with a maximum of 76 military observers to help enforce a fragile ceasefire in the nation’s eight-month civil war. The military officers are to work with a West African force and the 4,000 French soldiers in the country as well as the Ivory Coast military and rebel militia to give advice and monitor the January ceasefire. The mission would serve for an initial six months, subject to renewal, adds the dispatch.