Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

8 September 2003

NATO

• Noting that as head of U.S. Joint forces Command and NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, Adm. Giambastiani is at the forefront of the effort to retrain U.S. and NATO forces, the Stars and Stripes, Sept. 7, quoted him saying, during a visit to Stuttgart Friday: “Transformation is a process that is broad and very deep. And by that I mean, transformation (is about) changing the way, for example, we develop, educate and train our armed forces, officer and enlisted. It means changing the way we procure weapons systems to deliver them more rapidly…. It’s a lot about culture and thinking about how to improve (the force)…. It is a continuous, long-term process. If you are doing it properly, it never ends.” Ultimately, Adm. Giambastiani reportedly added, the goal is to give service members the best chance to succeed on the battlefield and return home to their families and friends.

ESDP

• The EU is currently discussing a military peacekeeping mission in Moldova. According to a proposal by the Dutch government, an EU peacekeeping force is to set out at the order of the OSCE by the end of this year in order to make it easier to settle the conflicts between ethnic Romanians and Slavs in Moldova, reported Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 7. Claiming, however, that according to information from the Hague, which currently chairs the OSCE, there is opposition from the U.S. administration, the article continued: “Washington wants to give this task to NATO instead of the EU. In Berlin, it is said that Germany, Britain, Italy and other EU countries are also skeptical.” The newspaper asserted that it had obtained an informal paper, which proposes to station “a few hundred” lightly armed soldiers for “peacekeeping” in Moldova. According to the paper, adds the article, it is believed that this process could make it possible to “examine whether the EU is willing to carry out a peacekeeping mission together with other interested parties.”

Media continue to focus on a British proposal for the establishment of an EU military planning cell at SHAPE.
Reporting on a meeting of EU foreign ministers at Garda Lake Friday, Die Welt, Sept. 6, remarked that “old conflicts about the European military structure reopened in the debate about the future of ESDP.” According to the newspaper, Belgian Foreign Minister Michel persisted with a plan agreed by Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg in April, to establish in the Belgian city of Tervuren an autonomous EU headquarters independent of NATO. The article noted, however, that before the Garda meeting, Belgian Prime Minister Verhofstadt called the British proposal an “excellent idea”—but as a complement to a European headquarters and not as an alternative. The article quoted Foreign Secretary Straw saying Friday that although the British proposal had not been “unanimously welcomed,” it had found “broad support” among his colleagues.
A related article in The Sunday Times, Sept. 7, reported that France reiterated its support for the EU scheme this weekend, but denied that the proposal was directed against Washington. “We have always said it was not an attempt to divide the NATO allies and was in no way something done against the Americans. We have no intention to destroy the transatlantic link or to destroy NATO,” one French diplomat is quoted saying. But, the article noted, British officials believe that the creation of a separate EU headquarters would duplicate what is already being done at both national and NATO levels. The newspaper also stressed that there is concern that other countries may eventually be pressured into supporting the initiative. “The next time a country wants a favor from France, they could face pressure to join the force,” it quoted an unidentified NATO source saying. The article recalled that the EU headquarters issue is expected to be discussed by Defense Secretary Hoon and his European counterparts in Rome on Oct. 3.
Observing that the problems of Iraq have weakened Britain’s position on the EU’s constitutional issues of foreign affairs and defense, The Times writes: Both Britain and America want UN help in Iraq. President Chirac is willing to have the matter raised at the UN, but he is bargaining. One of his objectives is acceptance of the proposed new European military planning center at Tervuren, in Belgium. Because of the Anglo-American difficulties in Iraq, the Franco-German alliance is at the height of its bargaining power.

IRAQ

• According to the BBC World Service, Defense Secretary Hoon announced Monday that about 2,200 extra British troops will be sent to Iraq in the coming weeks. The broadcast quoted a spokesman for Prime Minister Blair saying the move was “a detailed, targeted response” to achieving the allied objectives of improving Iraq’s politics, infrastructure and security. The spokesman reportedly said there would initially be 1,200 troops heading to Iraq in the next few days, with an estimated 1,000 troops expected to follow within the next few weeks.