China is a present danger to Europe. NATO’s defense plans must respond

Good news: NATO’s Concept for the Deterrence and Defense of the Euro-Atlantic Area (DDA) may soon have the blessing of NATO-member leaders at this month’s summit in Brussels. But there’s bad news too: It is already time to update the DDA to address China.

In May 2019, the NATO Military Committee, made up of the allies’ defense chiefs, signed a new military strategy—the first such document written by NATO since the late 1960s. The Military Committee later introduced two subordinate documents that map how to implement the Alliance’s strategy, the first being the DDA. The DDA outlines how the Alliance will use its military power to address the primary threats confronting allied interests in Europe. It calls for employing the Alliance’s military power to deter and defend against its two major threats—Russia and international terrorism—across Europe and beyond in all domains. The second document, the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept (NWCC), outlines a twenty-year vision for the Alliance’s warfare capabilities and characteristics. The DDA focuses on short-run threats, while the NWCC looks at the longer term. Together, these concepts should help NATO better align its existing tools, processes, and activities to ensure there’s greater coherence in how the Alliance secures and stabilizes the Euro-Atlantic region.

 
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Πηγή: atlanticcouncil.org