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NATO's Afghan Challenge Text:http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1214 As NATO approaches its sixtieth anniversary in 2009, it is clear that all is not well within the alliance. The conceptual challenge is to define the meaning of collective self-defense in the post-Cold War world, with its new threats of terrorism, ethnic conflict, weapons proliferation, and non-state actors. How will NATO deal with such threats? At the same time, the alliance is faced with some very practical challenges in Afghanistan, where its operations are encountering mounting difficulties and the Taliban seem to be gaining strength. In a speech to the Munich Conference on Security Policy on February 10, Defense Secretary Robert Gates addressed these issues. Pointing out that in the wake of 9/11, “our nations set out to transform NATO into an expeditionary force capable of dealing with threats of this type,” he called attention to the problems in Afghanistan. He emphasized that “some nations ought not to have the luxury of opting only for stability and civilian operations, thus forcing other allies to bear a disproportionate share of the fighting and the dying.” Although he did not mention it specifically, the recent U.S. decision to send 3000 more Marines to Afghanistan, while other NATO members refuse to allow their forces there to participate in combat, surely gave added emphasis to the Secretary's point. Gates acknowledged that many NATO governments are constrained by weak public support for NATO's Afghan mission, and he sought to convince Europeans that the threat from violent Islamic extremists is real. If they succeed in Afghanistan, he warned, this would “beget success on many other fronts as the cancer metastasized,” and “violence and terrorism worldwide could surge.” NATO's credibility, he concluded, “and indeed the viability of the Euro-Atlantic security project itself, will depend on how we perform now.” |
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