Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

15 September 2003

NRF

• The NRF, which is to be launched on Oct. 15, can be deployed within five days in any part of the world in an emergency. The 21,000-strong force will reach combat readiness by 2006 and Hungary will contribute soldiers to the force, reported Budapest’s Kossuth Radio, Sept. 13. The program carried Peter Siklosi, the head of the Defense Political Department of the Defense Ministry saying that depending on NATO’s command, the unit will carry out anti-terrorist, peacemaking, humanitarian or rescue missions. “Hungarian elite soldiers will be offered to the force as of January 2004. Hungary will provide one of the squadrons of the 34th Laszlo Dercsenyi reconnaissance battalions from Szolnok in central Hungary,” Siklosi added.
  
  
• In a contribution to the daily Viby Jyllands-Posten, Sept. 11, Danish Defense Minister Svend Aage Jensby viewed plans for a reform of his country’s armed forces against the background of NATO’s transformation and plans to create the NRF. The Danish armed forces must reform to contribute to the fight against terror, he wrote, adding: “Denmark will deploy soldiers far away in countries where climate conditions and terrain are very different than they are in Denmark. This will require far-reaching changes in the way the armed forces are constructed…. Most of NATO’s members face the same challenges. The changes will be so marked that they truly must be called a transformation…. Today NATO is working in a focused way to establish a new, powerful reaction force—the NATO Response Force. It will ensure that we can deploy military forces quickly and effectively in the world’s hot spots. At the same time, the preparations for participation in the reaction force ensure that military units can develop and work together across national borders. On top of that there is a special initiative for the strengthening of the Alliance’s military capabilities. This should ensure joint control over modern, powerful, and mobile materiel and logistics. We should support NATO’s transformation—and be part of it. Denmark should bear its share of the burden. There are no free lunches here either.”

NATO-ENLARGEMENT

• Sofia’s BTA, Sept. 12, quoted Chief of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Armed Force, Gen. Kolev, saying in a news conference in Sofia that Bulgaria has been offered two general officer’s positions at NATO sub-regional commands which will be rotated with Slovakia and Slovenia. “We find this a fair decision because some quite larger countries with larger armed forces have more or less the same representation,” Gen. Kolev reportedly said. According to the dispatch, he added that Bulgaria is ready to contribute more senior officers to the NATO command.

IRAQ

• AP reports Turkish Foreign Minister Gul warned in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi Monday that the United States could lose its credibility in fighting international terrorism if it does not crack down on Turkish Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. “The United States cannot differentiate between its terrorists and our terrorists. They cannot also take the risk of losing their credibility in the fight against terrorism,” Gul reportedly told a news conference. The dispatch observes that Gul’s statements highlight the difficulties the United States faces in cobbling together a peacekeeping coalition for Iraq.

In a contribution to the New York Times, Sept. 13, Robert Hunter, a fellow at the Rand Corporation and a former U.S. Ambassador to NATO wrote that the admonition “Let NATO do it” has become a standard response to military challenges, from Bosnia to Kosovo to Afghanistan and stressed it should now be applied to Iraq.
“We have plenty of precedents for an effective NATO intervention that starts from a far-reaching UN mandate. In 1995, the Security Council created a force to go into Bosnia but made clear it would be run ‘through the NATO chain of command,’” Hunter wrote, adding: “NATO thus acted as the UN’s agent, and the arrangement worked. Something similar was done in Kosovo, with equal military success…. When NATO is formally in charge, America dominates operations under the organization’s supreme allied commander, now a Marine general, James Jones. For half a century, every ally has accepted this—including France, which has deployed forces under our leadership even in engagements falling outside the organization’s charter. For several weeks, the administration has debated whether it should modify the view that as sole superpower, it can do whatever it wants wherever it wants. To get needed help in Iraq, including major financial support from European Union countries, returning to the last half-century’s commitment to working with others seems the obvious choice. NATO is the answer, and the sooner the better.”
Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports meanwhile that in an interview with ZDF television, Defense Minister Struck said it was conceivable that NATO would become more involved in Iraq. He reportedly stressed, however, that this does not necessarily mean German troops will take part. “If NATO gets a mandate, each member state decides on its own participation,” he stressed.

BALKANS

• According to AFP, ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte has set a year-end deadline for the handover to the court of top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects Karadzic an Mladic and Croat former General Ante Gotovina. If they are not handed over, the Court will be unable to complete its work within the timetable set by the international community, del Ponte told reporters Friday. She reportedly acknowledged that NATO states now possess the political will to find the fugitives, but said she would maintain pressure on them.
  
  
• Under the title, “Bosnia: European takeover jeopardized,” Le Figaro claims that “the Americans are still refusing to handover Bosnia to the Europeans.” Given its experience in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia where it took over the NATO peacekeeping mission and is now leading Operation Concordia, Europe would like to intervene militarily in Bosnia to mark its footprint in the former Yugoslavia, writes the daily. It adds, however, that the United States does not seem prepared to make a “gift” to the EU, suggesting that the proposal for the establishment of an EU military headquarters independent of NATO is fueling American reluctance.

OTHER NEWS

• Electronic media report that Sweden has voted by a clear majority to reject the euro in a referendum overshadowed by the killing of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. According to the BBC World Service, the final result shows 56 percent voting against the euro, with only 42 percent in favor, on a high turnout of 81 percent.