NATO REVIEW 9501-1: NATO and the evolving Euro-Atlantic security architecture
Chris Scheurweghs
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No.6 - Dec 94 / No.1 - Jan 95 - Volume 42
File: 9505-1 pp. 3-7
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NATO AND THE EVOLVING EURO-ATLANTIC SECURITY
ARCHITECTURE
Willy Claes
Secretary General of NATO and Chairman of the North
Atlantic Council
I accepted the invitation of Allied governments to
become NATO Secretary General and Chairman of the North
Atlantic Council knowing that I was taking on one of the
most challenging positions in the world today. The end
of the Cold War has provided the opportunity to achieve
what was once only a dream - a Europe whole, free and
secure; a Europe at peace with itself.
At the same time, new sources of instability have arisen
on the European continent. We are confronted with a
seemingly interminable and odious conflict in the former
Yugoslavia, new strains of extreme nationalism,
spreading intolerance, and a disturbing propensity in
many regions to resort to armed force in settling
political differences. It would be most imprudent to
ignore the potential of these developments to undermine
our hopes for a new era of peace and prosperity in the
whole of Europe.
In the midst of these conflicting trends which
characterize the European security landscape, I believe
that several important themes will define the tasks
ahead for NATO, not just for today but throughout the
final years of this decade and beyond. These themes are
unity; cooperation, partnership and NATO's enlargement;
conflict prevention and crisis management; and
transformation. I would like to address them in turn.
Unity
The Washington Treaty commits our 16 nations to defend
collectively our way of life, our democratic values and
independence, our freedom from coercion and threat. The
Atlantic Alliance is a living testament to our unity and
cohesion in pursuing these common security objectives.
This unity is the cornerstone of this Alliance. The
Brussels Summit this past January gave ringing
endorsement to the enduring validity of NATO based on a
strong transatlantic link.(1)
That the security of Europe and North America is one and
indivisible is a fundamental premise of our Alliance. A
Europe without the Atlantic link is as unimaginable as a
Europe without the European Union. It is true that there
have been differences of perspective between Europe and
America as indeed there have been within Europe. But the
impact of such differences should not be exaggerated.
We are 16 free allies and debate is natural. North
Americans and Europeans share common strategic
interests, and that fact should be kept firmly in mind
whenever we experience tensions which are bound
sometimes to characterize our increasingly complex and
interdependent relationship.
Our shared values, interests and destiny are embodied
concretely in one of NATO's unique assets - its
integrated military structure. This structure provides
us with an effective and reliable means of defence far
beyond the capability that any of our countries could
muster separately. Serving our core defence functions is
an elaborate network of bases, equipment and
infrastructure. While military restructuring and
rationalisation are unquestionably necessary to take
into account the new circumstances, any downsizing must
not unravel this structure which has been the basis of
European security for most of the last half century. A
weak NATO military structure would create risky
uncertainties and perhaps even encourage instability in
a Europe still in the formative stages of establishing
its new cooperative security relationships.
To American and European publics alike, my message is
that the historic mission of the Alliance is not over
yet. We have got to work together to achieve the best
and remain prepared to prevent the worst - and to pay
for it. The Alliance still remains the best kind of
insurance policy we have in collectively facing future
unknowns.
Cooperation, partnership and NATO's enlargement
The further development of a cooperative approach to
security in Europe is a priority task for the Alliance.
As our Foreign Ministers declared in their December
meeting in Brussels, we are committed to reinforce
cooperative security structures - to build, in effect, a
European security architecture - which can extend to
countries throughout the whole of Europe. They also
noted that the enlargement of NATO should also be seen
in this context.
In the Partnership for Peace we have an instrument for
building closer relationships with our new Partners to
the East. Through PFP we seek to build the habits of
consultation, trust and cooperation which the Allies
have developed among themselves for many decades. Much
of this cooperation will be in the military sphere.
Countries will be nominating forces and assets which
they bring to the Partnership. Drawing upon those
forces, we will build common ideas and approaches to
peacekeeping and humanitarian support operations.
There is, however, more to the Partnership for Peace
than military exercises and activities; it will bind
Allies and Partners in a closer pattern of activity
covering a wide range of security-related matters. We
aim to provide our experience and expertise to the new
democracies in creating democratically organised and
accountable Ministries of Defence. We also aim to
introduce a planning and review process based on the
force planning system that has played a major part in
enhancing Alliance solidarity and underpinning the
integrated military structure.
The Partnership for Peace has got off to a fast-paced
beginning. So far 23 Partner countries have joined, and
the framework is in place for rapid growth in the joint
and cooperative activities between Allies and Partners.
To exploit the full potential of PFP to transform NATO_s
relations with its Partners, we must now ensure that the
momentum that has marked the beginning of this
initiative is maintained as we move towards full
implementation.
The Partnership for Peace was created in the framework
of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. The annual
NACC Work Plan covers a wide range of cooperative
activities which continue even as we develop PFP. We
have, for example, merged the peacekeeping activities
under the auspices of a NACC-PFP Political-Military
Steering Group. The new Work Plan approved by ministers
this December reflects both the continued vitality of
NACC as well as the adjustments related to the
Partnership for Peace.
Many of our Partner countries in Central and Eastern
Europe have expressed a desire to go beyond cooperation
and partnership towards NATO membership. Such an
enlargement of the Alliance would be a natural
development, given the end of the East-West divide. The
process of growing together - initiated in 1989 and
given concrete, practical expression by the NACC Work
Plan and the Partnership for Peace - will ultimately
reach the point when NATO will take in new members.
At the moment, the Alliance has not defined the
modalities of enlargement. However, the framework for
consideration of NATO expansion has been clearly stated
at the Brussels Summit: it will be part of an
evolutionary process, taking into account political and
security developments in the whole of Europe. The North
Atlantic Council has now carried forward this process of
NATO's enlargement by setting out the next steps. At the
recent Council meeting in Brussels on 1 December,
Alliance Foreign Ministers placed the issue of
enlargement squarely in the context of a broad European
security architecture based on true cooperation
throughout the whole of Europe. It would threaten no one
and would enhance stability and security for all of
Europe. We will now embark upon an extensive study of
how NATO will enlarge, the principles to guide this
process and the implications of membership.
While it is premature to anticipate the results of this
study, I can state with complete confidence that
enlargement of the Alliance, when it occurs, will be
done in a way that preserves the coherence and
effectiveness of our decision-making, does not impair
our core defence functions, and upholds the principles
and objectives of the Washington Treaty. The progress
that has been made will be discussed at the 1995
Spring ministerial meeting of the Council and we will
inform our Cooperation Partners prior to our next
meeting in Brussels.
Obviously, an important part of the new security
landscape in Europe is Russia. Russia remains the
single most powerful military power in Europe. As
Secretary General, I wish to develop close relationships
of trust and mutual benefit between NATO and Russia,
building on the legac of my predecessor, the late
Manfred Woerner. Starting in 1990 when he travelled to
Moscow to extend NATO's hand of friendship, Manfred
Woerner created a very solid foundation for our future
relationship.
In this regard, Partnership for Peace provides an
important opportunity to enhance Alliance relations with
Russia. In addition, the "broad, enhanced dialogue and
cooperation" NATO has agreed to pursue with Russia
outside the PFP framework will make a further
contribution to stability and security in Europe.
In this partnership, each side will respect the
sovereignty of the other, and there will be no DROIT DE
REGARD. Moreover, the NATO-Russian relationship will not
be based on any concept of "spheres of influence".
Rather, we seek to build the new Europe based upon
respect for CSCE principles, including freedom from
coercion. Indeed, successfully developing a NATO-Russia
relationship based on these principles is vital to our
goal of a "Europe whole and free".
Our evolving relationship with Russia has steadily
gained in substance. On 1 December, Russian Foreign
Minister Andrei Kozyrev met with the North Atlantic
Council in a "16+1" format to review two important
documents - the Individual Partnership Programme between
NATO and Russia and a further development of the
enhanced NATO-Russian relationship "beyond PFP".
Although further discussion will be required before
formal agreement can be reached on them, this
ministerial-level meeting was a first for the Alliance
and for Russia too. I am convinced that there can be no
durable European security system without the active,
constructive and cooperative involvement of Russia.
Conflict prevention and crisis management
At Ministerial meetings more than two years ago, the
Alliance declared its readiness, on a case-by-case
basis, to support UN and/or CSCE peacekeeping
operations. This decision resolved at one stroke the
nagging question of whether the Alliance could
take on "out-of-area" missions and set the stage for
NATO's involvement in a real combat situation - the
bitter conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Here, the
Alliance is supporting the United Nations, both to
assist the humanitarian mission and to underpin
international efforts to achieve a peaceful settlement.
In the international community's search for a solution
to this conflict, some basic lessons have been learned.
A prime one is that active diplomacy needs military
backing to be effective. NATO has provided that
instrument. Without NATO's support, the UN could simply
not have enforced the Adriatic embargo or the
No-Fly Zone over Bosnia. UNPROFOR personnel would not
have the protection afforded by NATO air power as they
carry out humanitarian and related peacekeeping tasks in
threatening circumstances. And finally, the people of
Sarajevo and Gorazde would not have benefitted from the
Alliance's imposition of weapons exclusion zones.
We have also learned that the UN cannot handle by itself
the ever-increasing demand in the fields of crisis
prevention and conflict resolution. There is no doubt
that close cooperation between the UN and organizations
such as NATO will be increasingly important in the
future. Our relations with the UN have vastly expanded
in the past months, with the inevitable ups and downs as
our two different international organizations attempt to
work together for the first time in their history.
And yet, no one can be satisfied with the fruit of the
international community's efforts in the former
Yugoslavia - and that includes NATO. It is sometimes
poorly understood by commentators and by our publics
that the United Nations is in the lead in former
Yugoslavia because that is the wish of the international
community.
It is of primary importance, however, that NATO maintain
its autonomy as a sovereign organization: we support the
UN, but we are not its sub-contractor. In the final
analysis, we must preserve the Alliance's credibility.
It is our most valuable asset, and it remains essential
to the preservation of peace in the wider Europe.
Transformation
A formidable and enduring characteristic of the Alliance
is its adaptability. We have embarked on a process of
fundamental reform - a transformation that has affected
each and every aspect of NATO's political and military
structures - and taken on new missions incontributing to
the enhancement of stability and security throughout
Europe.
One such initiative is the development of the Combined
Joint Task Forces (CJTF) concept. This will provide NATO
for the first time with deployable and mobile commands,
trained and ready to respond to a range of
contingencies. CJTF would also allow NATO assets to
be put under WEU command in cases where NATO itself
decides not to act. Providing forces for the WEU which
are "separable but not separate" from NATO will help the
European Allies to turn an emerging European Security
and Defence Identity into an operational reality.
Progress has not been as rapid as we would like on CJTF,
but we hope to move forward in the new year towards
making this innovative concept both a new tool for
peacekeeping and a new contribution to the European
Security and Defence Identity.
A second, related initiative is to achieve a more
structured relationship with the Western European Union,
the European pillar of NATO in which all European
members of NATO, including Iceland, Norway and Turkey,
are represented in one way or another. As the Western
European Union develops its role as the defence
component of the EU, we need to ensure the closest
cooperation between NATO and the WEU, on the basis of
complementarity, transparency and no duplication of
military structures. This task is of primary
significance for the future of the Alliance. A strong
European pillar will enable our European Allies to
take greater responsibility for their common security
and defence.
A third initiative in NATO's transformation is the
Alliance's response to the threat of proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction. NATO has adopted a policy
framework which sets the stage for its consideration of
political and defence-related steps if non-proliferation
efforts fail.(2) A task of the Alliance is the further
active development of this initiative now under study.
Further, I would like to mention the Mediterranean. Five
NATO members border on the "Middle Sea". The situation
there is of increasing concern, and we are now ready to
establish contacts, on a case-by-case basis, between the
Alliance and non-NATO Mediterranean countries, with a
view to contributing to the strengthening of regional
stability. Increasingly, looking south as well as east
is also part of the transformation of this Alliance.
Conclusion
Over the 45
years of its existence, the North Atlantic Alliance has
shown itself capable of taking difficult decisions
concerning the most appropriate and effective ways of
providing for the Allies' security. I have already
discovered that it lives up to - at times in extremely
lively fashion - the motto in the Council Chamber at
NATO Headquarters, which reads: "Animus In Consulendo
Liber". But when the decision is made, ranks close and
we move swiftly and effectively towards implementation.
This capacity to discuss, debate and then decide is a
quality that spans the Alliance's history. Just look at
the results of the past few years: NATO has been
changing more profoundly perhaps than any other
international security organization in the world. On the
basis of consensus, the Alliance has taken on a range of
new tasks and missions while still continuing its
traditional mission of defending Allies' security. As
Secretary General, I look forward to fulfilling these
tasks with dedication and determination, and am
confident that NATO will remain at the centre of the
evolving Euro-Atlantic security architecture as we move
toward the new century.
(1) For text of the Summit Declaration, see NATO Review,
No.1, February 1994, pp.30-33 or NATO Gopher
(URL:gopher.nato.int:70/1)
(2) For text the Alliance Policy Framework on
Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, see NATO
Review, No.3, June 1994, pp.28-29 or NATO Gopher
(URL:gopher.nato.int:70/1)
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