Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

18 December 2003

ISAF

• According to AFP, departing NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson warned Alliance members Wednesday that they had to “wake up” and bolster support for ISAF or face failure. In his last address before leaving NATO, he reportedly stressed: “Afghanistan will be … tough but it has to be a success. For that to be guaranteed the nations will have to wake up to what they have taken on…. Expansion (of ISAF beyond Kabul) must be credible, and be seen to be credible, before (the NATO summit in Istanbul next June)…. Money, troops and long-term commitment are the only ingredients of success and the only way Afghanistan’s problems will not come West to hunt us…. Failure will be a crushing blow, not just for NATO but for each and every NATO country, each and every international organizations, and for the concept of multilateralism in international relations.”

IRAQ

• Outgoing NATO Secretary General Robertson said Wednesday the Alliance should take up a U.S. invitation to deploy in Iraq as long as it does not harm NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, reports the Washington Times. The article quotes Lord Robertson saying: “As the world’s only multinational force packager, we should not stand aside if Iraq needs our specific involvement.” The article further notes that at the State Department Wednesday, EU foreign policy chief Solana said he would “not close off the possibility” of a NATO deployment in Iraq. According to the newspaper, he said the Afghan mission had set a precedent for “out-of-area” missions for NATO, something that would have been “unthinkable” a few years ago.
  
  
• According to AP, the lower chamber of the Czech Parliament voted Thursday to send a military police contingent to Iraq. The dispatch quotes a Defense Ministry spokesman saying the unit of up to 150 military police will be stationed at a British base near Basra. It would stay in Iraq from Jan. 1 through to the end of 2004.

NATO-ESDP

• In a contribution to Stockholm’s Dagens Nyheter, Swedish Defense Chief Gen. Hedertedt warned that it will be very difficult for Sweden to exercise influence on the EU’s common foreign and security policy if the country remains outside NATO. Europeanization will lead to even closer cooperation with NATO, and the price for continuing military nonalignment will undoubtedly become higher, he writes, adding: “Whether the price of military nonalignment becomes too high is ultimately a question of political credibility. I personally am convinced that during the next decade, the European perspective must become fully established in the Swedish armed forces. This will also include even closer cooperation with NATO. It is only through close cooperation with NATO that the EU’ common security and defense policy can develop its full strength. I therefore consider it very difficult for Sweden to have full influence on the EU’s common foreign and security policy in the future if we remain outside NATO. As a small country, Sweden also has a strong interest in the transatlantic security community not being weakened.”
  
  
• “Austria should join NATO—and do so with the minimum possible delay,” charged Vienna’s weekly Profil, Dec. 15. The article said: “Following Austrian’s life-long self-delusion of neutrality, a second one could be creeping in: That a European defense identity outside of NATO, as a quasi alternative to NATO beyond the Alliance, can be developed. But this is not possible…. In the long term, if all goes well, the European-American balance of power in matters of security policy will be reestablished. But, however discordant the process may be, Europe’s emancipation from U.S. dominance will proceed through NATO, whose members include not only most of, but also the most important countries of Europe. And there are good reasons for this. Unlike what its opponents would have us believe, NATO is not just merely the extended arm of U.S. foreign policy in Europe, but an essential global stabilizing factor in this so baffling and perilous world…. If, rather than stubbornly clinging to the periphery of Europe, and remaining a mere item of history, Austria aims to play an active part in helping to shape the future, then we are going to have to join NATO.”