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Norway and Operations Abroad

The current international challenges mean that contributions to peace operations abroad will be one of the NAF's most important and demanding tasks in the years to come. Within a limited force structure, the aim must be to make the larger part of the force structure usable, both at home and abroad. This implies, as a general rule, that the main part of the units and permanently employed military personnel, in addition to certain categories of civilian personnel, must also be available for missions abroad.

The Cold War obliged the Norwegian Armed Forces to concentrate their activities at home in view of Norway's geographical position on NATO's northern flank. Even though Alliance plans and exercises were based on the insertion of mobile forces in exposed areas, Norwegian defence was essentially static, and Norwegian operations abroad were seen as a mainly supplementary activity. The end of the Cold War brought a need to reshape Norwegian military capabilities to include a sharper focus on international operations. This is one main reason why the business of modernization has been a more demanding process for the Norwegian Armed Forces than for many of the country's allies.

Like NATO, Norway faces the duality of operations both at home and away. While being a peace-loving nation, Norway cannot exclude the possibility that from time to time it may have to step up to the mark with an active contribution to military operations outside Norway's own adjacent areas. As President Obama expressed it in his Nobel lecture: The instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace. This is directly in line with the thinking that has occupied a central position in Norwegian politics for very many years. The use of force must be firmly based in law, but sometimes that force has to be used in the service of the law.

That is why Norway is in Afghanistan, in Chad and why the frigate Fridtjof Nansen was patrolling off the coast of Somalia. For even though Norway has major tasks to face at home, the country also has to carry a share of responsibility for international security. In this Norway makes its' contribution through NATO, the UN and the EU. It is many years since Norway had as many soldiers taking part in operations abroad as in 2010. There were something like 900 Norwegian men and women serving in international operations under the auspices of these organisations, all of which had an important bearing on Norway's security. This added up to a significant contribution when seen in the light of Norway's size. Still more men and women were preparing to take part or have just returned from duty, or were doing their bit at home to support these operations overseas.

The majority of the Norwegian people support participation in the ISAF operation in Afghanistan where Norway is just one of 42 contributing countries. This support deserves the greatest respect. The operation also has full support in the Storting. Both military and civil contributions in Afghanistan cover a very broad spectrum and their fundamental objective is to help the Afghans to help themselves. In Afghanistan, the principal aim on the military side is to assist in making the military and civil authorities better able to assume responsibility for their own security. In this Norway was acting in line with the new American strategy. This strategy also placed emphasis on increased protection of the Afghan population against direct confrontation with the insurgents - an approach that we from the Norwegian side had long advocated.

The key to success in Afghanistan is training and the build-up of Afghan state institutions including the Afghan Army and the police. The work of strengthening the Afghan security forces was to be coordinated through a joint NATO training mission. To finance this, a NATO support fund has been set up to which Norway contributed 20 million US dollars in 2010. In addition Norway contributed a further 10 million dollars towards the build-up of the Afghan police. At the same time Norway reshaped its military contribution still further in the direction of training, education and support.

The intention is that Afghan forces will, in stages, take over responsibility for security further out into the provinces. When this happens, it does not mean that the ISAF forces will withdraw altogether but that they will assume a role that is more clearly one of support for the Afghan forces and authorities. This is the only way to proceed if the international efforts to bring security and stability to Afghanistan are to succeed.