24 November 2004
Head of U.S. European Command Describes Ongoing Force Changes
Says important to remove obstacles limiting NATO transformation
By Rebecca Ford Mitchell
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Both NATO and the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) are making changes to meet the new threats of the 21st century by overhauling command structures, taking advantage of technology and closing excess bases to become more effective and efficient, says the head of the Allied Command Europe.
"The idea of transformation is not to do less in Europe and Africa; it's to do more," General James L. Jones, commander of EUCOM said at the National Press Club November 23.
"The world is increasingly populated by a spreading and a migration of threats to areas that we previously thought, in the 20th century, were fairly safe and secure," Jones said, adding that Africa will figure prominently in transformation plans to proactively prevent crises.
"There are a number of fragile democracies there that could go either way in the next decade, and they are worthy of our engagement simply because they wish to live as free people, they wish to be democracies, and they need some help," he said, adding that support for these countries needs to go beyond military efforts to include integrated assistance in economic development.
Jones listed the accomplishments of NATO since its 2002 Prague Summit where the alliance embraced a new, global concept of its responsibilities; the accomplishments included reform of the command structure, the creation of the NATO Response Force, the Chemical and Biological Response Force, and the Allied Command for Transformation, and the commitment to high-end capabilities.
He made note of the successes achieved by NATO and the U.S.-led coalition working with the people of Afghanistan. "It's interesting that two years ago, we used to hear a lot about al-Qaida, the Taliban, predictions of starvation throughout the country when, in fact, today, if you were to go to Afghanistan, you would be hard pressed to hear any one of those three subjects as the number one or number two concern," he said.
Jones acknowledged that there were still difficulties -- particularly in the area of narcotics -- but said, "the problems that the government is facing are problems of governance, not problems of insurgencies."
The insurgents were unable to generate a spring offensive or to stop the Afghan election in which 93 percent of the women and over 80 percent of the 10 million citizens who registered actually voted, he said.
Despite its many successes, NATO does face some obstacles to its transformation, Jones said. He pointed to the need for many of the member nations to increase military budgets for national and international security to provide a "predictably stable investment platform" for the alliance.
Restrictions by individual nations, called caveats, on how NATO forces can be used once on a mission are also an impediment, he said. "The most recent example of the impact of caveats obviously occurred in Kosovo in March, where the majority of the forces could not be used to interfere in civil disturbance operations, to guard patrimonial sites [a church] as required by the mission statement, [as they] had some sort of restrictions about being used outside of a specific geographical area."
Jones said that once the alliance delivers a unanimous vote to undertake a mission, "it is important that all allies support the operation." NATO has agreed to train security forces in Iraq but some its members have refused to send personnel to conduct that training, putting the burden to do so on the other allies.
Jones said this situation was disturbing and expressed his hope that it was a one-time event.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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