Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)
March 16, 2008 By Patrick Donahue, Bloomberg News
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called on the alliance to forge a new strategy to better confront the threat of terrorism, cyber attacks, weapons proliferation and an expanding guerrilla war in Afghanistan.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization should establish an "Atlantic Charter" by the alliance's summit meeting in 2009, de Hoop Scheffer told a German Marshall Fund conference in Brussels on Saturday. NATO's most recent strategy document, dating to 1999, doesn't take into account the changed security environment since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"Challenges are multifaceted, interlinked and can arise from anywhere," de Hoop Scheffer said in a prepared speech. "We need to do a better job of scanning the strategic horizon. We can't just be reactive."
NATO states have struggled to agree on sending troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month warned that NATO could become obsolete should it fail to reach an agreement on sharing the burden in the Afghan war.
De Hoop Scheffer said member states will have to increase NATO's budget and make the process for deciding on military contributions more "predictable." He also endorsed upgraded cooperation with outside organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union.
"If NATO is to be capable to act anywhere in world, we will need more global partners," de Hoop Scheffer said.
NATO's force of 43,000 troops fighting in Afghanistan to support the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai has been tested with an intensified Taliban insurgency. The violence has added to tension between the states with troops fighting in the more volatile south, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands, and those states with troops stationed in the relatively peaceful north, like Germany and France.
One point of contention in the alliance is a "substantial gap between military and civilian aspects of crisis management," de Hoop Scheffer said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently repeated her refusal to move troops to the south, saying that Germany was dedicated to civilian support in the north.
March 16, 2008 By Patrick Donahue, Bloomberg News
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called on the alliance to forge a new strategy to better confront the threat of terrorism, cyber attacks, weapons proliferation and an expanding guerrilla war in Afghanistan.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization should establish an "Atlantic Charter" by the alliance's summit meeting in 2009, de Hoop Scheffer told a German Marshall Fund conference in Brussels on Saturday. NATO's most recent strategy document, dating to 1999, doesn't take into account the changed security environment since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"Challenges are multifaceted, interlinked and can arise from anywhere," de Hoop Scheffer said in a prepared speech. "We need to do a better job of scanning the strategic horizon. We can't just be reactive."
NATO states have struggled to agree on sending troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month warned that NATO could become obsolete should it fail to reach an agreement on sharing the burden in the Afghan war.
De Hoop Scheffer said member states will have to increase NATO's budget and make the process for deciding on military contributions more "predictable." He also endorsed upgraded cooperation with outside organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union.
"If NATO is to be capable to act anywhere in world, we will need more global partners," de Hoop Scheffer said.
NATO's force of 43,000 troops fighting in Afghanistan to support the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai has been tested with an intensified Taliban insurgency. The violence has added to tension between the states with troops fighting in the more volatile south, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands, and those states with troops stationed in the relatively peaceful north, like Germany and France.
One point of contention in the alliance is a "substantial gap between military and civilian aspects of crisis management," de Hoop Scheffer said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently repeated her refusal to move troops to the south, saying that Germany was dedicated to civilian support in the north.