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NATO's 'New' Strategy Reflects Old Style
15 April 1999
By Daniel Plesch
NATO action in Kosovo was supposed to be the
prototype for the new NATO strategy to be unveiled at next
week's summit; military intervention without a UN mandate.
Despite the crash of the prototype, NATO looks set to commit
itself to this design for European Security.
Next week's NATO summit is still intended to
produce six or seven policy documents [outlined on BASIC's
web site]. None focus on crisis prevention or arms control.
None create a new prototype. A document on SE European stability
is being added as an afterthought.
According to Administration sources, US leadership
remains concentrated on the idea that Europe's Security will
best be maintained if NATO is able to intervene militarily
without a mandate from the UN or the Organisation for Security
Cooperation in Europe. The results of the NATO action against
Yugoslavia have not caused a pause in Washington's attempt
to seek agreement that Europe can best be secured if NATO
is able to act militarily on its own authority.
According to Western officials, the discussions
about the new NATO strategy document are conducted in a surreal
fashion with bureaucrats arguing about the wording of strategic
theory in one part of a ministry and military strategists
trying to rescue the disaster in the Balkans in another. With
both sides operating in a vacuum, it is unlikely that any
of the lessons learned streaming out of Kosovo will make their
way onto the pages of summit documents. Document drafters
continue to emphasize the importance of NATO going it alone
while the US and its allies pursue intense consultations with
Russia, the UN Secretary General, the European Union, and
the OSCE. Given that NATO cannot find the means to connect
the proverbial dots, NATO's "Vision Statement for European
Security" will, no doubt, suffer from a bad case of short-sightedness.
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