PRESS RELEASE

19 November 2002

Prospects for Prague

A reinvigorated, larger NATO taking on greater responsibility says the Secretary General

Lord Robertson, NATO Secretary General, has clocked up a lot of air miles recently in his promotion of an enlarged, reinvigorated and more capable alliance which will no longer be restricted to operations in the region for which it was originally named.

Audiences in Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul, London and Washington have all listened to his enthusiastic message of a bright future for an alliance that lost its rationale following the collapse of the Soviet Union and found itself squeezed between a more unilaterally-minded United States of America and a European Union with aspirations for its own military and strategic role.

The solution, according to Lord Robertson, is for NATO to actively engage in dealing with growing instability, in countering terrorism and in controlling the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

To respond to these new threats and challenges, Member States of NATO will have to reshape their individual and collective military capability to be able to respond more quickly with a greater range of technological and hardware assets. Those countries invited to join an expanding NATO may not be able to increase their defence spending as much as the Secretary General would like them to, so they may bring ‘niche contributions’ or specialization to the party.

NATO’s proposed Response Force fits neatly into this developing strategic role. Speaking at a press conference on September 24, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, “if NATO does not have a force that is quick and agile … then it will not have much to offer the world in the 21^st Century”. Speaking to the EU Parliament in Brussels on October 8, Lord Robertson denied that a NATO Response Force would be a rival to the proposed EU Rapid Reaction Force.

Missile Defence, although not given much of a profile in the run-up to Prague, may elbow its way onto the agenda following UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon’s recent favourable comments and US Undersecretary of State John Bolton’s comments at a Royal United Services conference on Monday. “It is no longer a question of whether missile defence will be implemented”, he said, “and time was running out for allies to climb on board”.

“We will be following developments at the Summit with great interest”, said BASIC Director Dr. Ian Davis, to see if, as Lord Robertson believes, Prague sets the seal on a profound transformation that will confirm the Alliance’s value in the very different strategic landscape of the 21^st century”.

BASIC staff and associates are writing three briefings for the Prague Summit which will be available on the website and via e-mail.

The first one will be available just before the Summit starts, the second one during the Summit and the third one just after the Summit concludes.

Subjects covered are:

• ‘As NATO Gets Bigger, Can It Downsize Nuclear Risks?’ By Alistair Millar and Kathryn Crandall

• ‘NATO’S Defense Gap: More Than Just Capabilities’ By Chris Lindborg

• ‘What Happens After the Summit?’ By Fiona Simpson

Also see:

‘The Road to Prague, and Beyond’ By Nigel Chamberlain

BASIC Reports 82

For further information, comment or to arrange interviews, please contact:

 
Nigel Chamberlain on +44-(0)20-7407-2977 or +44-(0)1768 898641, nchamberlain@basicint.org, in London, or Chris Lindborg, clindborg@basicint.org, on +1-202-347-8340 in Washington.

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