NATO needs a new core task

As NATO undertakes its so-called reflection process decided by heads of state and government in London last December, which could lead to a new Strategic Concept, the alliance should boldly address new challenges to the very international system of norms and agreements that have carried it successfully through the past seven decades. This will require stretching NATO’s mission further and adopting a fourth core task, which we call “conserve stability.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has already pointed the way in a recent Atlantic Council/German Marshall Fund virtual meeting by stressing the importance of political unity and making NATO a more global alliance to defend democratic values in a world of increasing global competition. Now the alliance must translate this vision into a new set of missions and find concrete ways to begin implementing them.

NATO’s three core tasks defined in the 2010 Strategic Concept are collective defense, crisis management and cooperative security. They remain valid but are no longer sufficient. The first task dominated during the Cold War. Crisis management was a response to terrorism and other threats emanating from the chaotic Middle East and North Africa. Cooperative security focused on strengthening partnerships to reduce instability in NATO’s neighborhood.

This proposed fourth task would be more global and political in nature, though it would carry some new military responsibilities. It responds to criticism from leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Donald Trump that the alliance is losing its relevance in the face of new challenges from hybrid threats to democratic institutions and from Chinese assertiveness. The new task would begin to address the growing global division between democratic and autocratic regimes. It would focus as much on values as it would on common interests.

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Πηγή: defensenews.com