Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

04 August 2003

NATO-GEN. JONES

• According to the Independent, August 2, Gen. Jones has asked for the power to order a new, 6,000-strong Rapid Response Force (NRF) into action within five days before getting full backing from all 19 NATO nations. During a meeting with reporters at SHAPE on Friday, 1st August, he reportedly stated that the logic of creating a fast-moving, flexible force, designed to handle threats such as terrorism, meant a rethink of the Alliance’s lengthy and cumbersome mechanism. He was quoted saying: “You need not only agile forces but also agile decision-making machinery.” Gen. Jones, reports the daily, said the construction of the force was the “instrument of change” for NATO. The plan, argues the paper, could create a two-tier NATO, permitting the Alliance to go ahead with operations without the participation of some nations that need parliamentary approval before deploying troops, but the General allegedly specified that NATO member states would retain the right to veto missions, or could join in later if they wished. Those countries that require wider consultation and parliamentary approval, he reportedly added, would offer troops on a “lower readiness.” Doubts remain, however, speculates the article, whether there will be enough agreement within the Alliance about what type of missions the NRF should be used for. In a related article, daily Austrian newspaper Der Standard, August 2, under the title “NATO is facing a pivotal moment”, notes that “Agile, mobile, quick and global” are the attributes according to which NATO should act in the future, in the opinion of Gen. Jones. The General, writes the paper, considers the NRF, whose first unit is planned to be operationally ready by October, to be the main instrument for change. The Alliance, he reportedly stressed, “will also have to show to what extent it is ready to act proactively in conflicts,” and as an example of such preemptive action, he cited the NATO anti-terrorism operation off the coast of Gibraltar. “NATO is the perfect example of a coalition of the willing,” he is quoted saying adding that he “would not like to see this one being bypassed by other coalitions, because their decision making process would not be synchronized.” In a similar vein, Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 2, says the creation of a robust, globally deployable NATO combat force, as planned for October, will force the member states of the Alliance to decide more quickly than before on the participation of their military personnel in military operations and quotes Gen. Jones saying the possibility to issue a movement order at short notice is a prerequisite for participation in the NRF. The daily wrote that although the General avoided commenting explicitly on regulations of individual member nations, he indicated that the parliamentary approval for every Bundeswehr operation abroad, as required in Germany, did not meet “the requirements of the 21st century.” He also reportedly said: “If we really want to use this force, then of course we want to have to deal with as few obstacles as possible when the real thing happens.” Such obstacles include also “the conditions of every member state for approving a military operation.” These statements, adds the daily, are in line with the considerations in Berlin to weaken the “parliamentary reservation” of the Bundestag by passing a so-called “Entsendegesetz” (Deployment of Forces Act) governing the deployment of German military forces to missions abroad. Gen. Jones also reportedly said he wanted to create a “first prototype” of the new combat force on 15 October. Finally, he referred to the war in Afghanistan as an example of a possible deployment of the future NRF.
  
  
• An AFP dispatch, August 3, quotes the Romanian Defense Ministry saying NATO’s Supreme Commander in Europe, Gen. Jones, is due in Romania on Monday where he will check on the army’s readiness for membership of the Alliance. Reportedly, Gen. Jones is due to hold talks on Monday with Romanian President Ion Iliescu and Defense Minister Ioan Mircea Pascu on subjects including Romania’s future participation in multinational peacekeeping efforts and anti-terrorism operations. On Tuesday, Gen. Jones is due to meet most of the Romanian army’s senior commanders to evaluate their progress in reforms designed to improve the country’s military compatibility with other NATO countries. Romania, comments the agency, is also hoping that Washington will choose to station troops permanently in the country and has supplied a list of possible sites for U.S. military bases.

LIBERIA

• The Washington Post, August 3, writes that the first elements of a West African peacekeeping force prepared to arrive in Liberia on Monday, with a contingent of 300 Nigerian soldiers scheduled to land at Monrovia’s international airport by midday. The soldiers’ ranks, comments the daily, are expected to swell to 5,000 by the end of the month, but Liberians have continued to plead with President Bush to dispatch U.S. troops as well. Memories remain fresh of the last regional force that showed up to keep the peace, observes the paper: initially the West African force that showed up in 1990 succeeded in its immediate mission of restoring peace, but as the regional forces settled in, in some cases weapons were sold by the commanders themselves to the Liberian factions. After seven years of permanence, the force pulled out before a national army had been established in place of the militias, who soon restarted the fighting, which still continues. In Liberia, however, concludes the daily, the nascent peacekeeping operation is scheduled to come under the UN flag, according to a Security Council resolution passed Friday, and that prospect likely ensures international attention.