NATO
NATO's Drive to Reinvent Itself
Demonstration NATO Summit in Madrid, June 26, 2022.
As it prepares for its Heads of State and Government Summit to be held July 11-12 in Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO released a new strategic concept adopted at its prior summit held in Madrid in 2022 which addresses political priorities. The Atlantic Council, a NATO-linked "think tank" based in Washington DC, has now issued two detailed papers outlining what needs to happen at the Vilnius summit. These latest two documents address military concerns which proved inadequate in the planning and unleashing by NATO of the conflict with Russia, in Ukraine.
One of them is authored by council board member Franklin D. Kramer. Titled, "NATO deterrence and defense: Military priorities for the Vilnius Summit," it looks at how to reinvent NATO -- perhaps in light of the impending failure of its proxy war in Ukraine. It concerns military priorities, command structure, infrastructure, supply chains, weapons production and the like, taking into account military lessons learned from its proxy war in Ukraine, in preparation for continued conflict with Russia and escalating conflict to the point of war with China.
The other is titled "Defining success for NATO's Vilnius summit: A primer," by Charles Barry (visiting fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, DC) and Christopher Skaluba (former principal director for European and NATO policy and the principal director for strategy and force development in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense). It is also preoccupied with the proxy war in Ukraine and how to continue to prop up that country to wage war with Russia, as well expanding NATO membership forces and nuclear arms, setting the two per cent of GDP target of military spending by members "as a floor, not a ceiling," and "taking concrete steps to confront the systemic challenge from China."
An op-ed by Hans Petter Midttun, a former Defence Attaché of Norway to Ukraine and Officer (R) of the Norwegian Armed Forces, published in the Kyiv Post, argues in a similar vein that "NATO needs to reinvent itself or risk becoming irrelevant."
Meanwhile, G7 Finance Ministers met on April 12 and Climate, Energy and Environment Ministers met on April 16 and Foreign Ministers met on April 18. Their focus continues to be how to maintain the unity of the G7 despite growing discord on almost everything. While the official line is to intensify sanctions against Russia, recent diplomacy developments and initiatives on the part of several NATO member countries are promoting a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict. Even states like Brazil are pushing for an end to "Western dominance."
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 4 - April 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M5300412.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca