Gwynne Dyer: NATO at 60 faces growing pains that could threaten its survival
[Gwynne Dyer is a London-based journalist.]
The questions that nobody will ask out loud about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: How much is enough?
How many new members can NATO afford to take on? If Georgia had already been a member last August, would NATO have gone to war with Russia in its defense? And how far beyond Europe should it try to operate?
When U.S. President Barack Obama asks NATO countries to send more troops to Afghanistan, few member nations will comply, but nobody will ask what a "North Atlantic" alliance is doing in the middle of an Afghan civil war.
Well, it is a party, after all, and nobody wants to spoil it. NATO marked its 60th anniversary Saturday in Strasbourg and Kehl, and that really is something to celebrate: The organization's survival for 20 years after the disappearance of the threat that justified its formation defies most historical precedents. It will probably be around for another 20, too, but quite soon it will have to rethink the heedless expansion of both membership and commitments that have characterized the last 20.
History offers few other examples of alliances that outlived the conflict that gave them birth, but NATO has added 10 new members since the collapse of the Soviet Union and has expanded its area of operations outside the North Atlantic region for the first time. Two more countries, Croatia and Albania, were welcomed into the alliance April 1, for a total of 28, and a further three (Macedonia, Ukraine and Georgia) have already been told that they will eventually be allowed to join.
Under President Nicolas Sarkozy, France is at last rejoining the NATO integrated military command structure that it left under Charles de Gaulle in 1966. The alliance accounts for 70 percent of the world's military spending, and towers above all potential rivals. This is a remarkably successful organization by any standard, and yet it is also remarkably uncertain about its role and its future.
NATO was never just a traditional alliance such as the Triple Entente of the early 20th century, which was basically a diplomatic agreement despite its success militarily. Members of the alliance didn't train together in peacetime; there was no effort to standardize equipment or coordinate weapons purchases; and there wasn't even much detailed planning for strategic cooperation in the event of war.
By contrast, NATO soon began to evolve an integrated command structure and a large bureaucratic infrastructure. When the end of the Soviet threat in 1989-90 removed the original motive for its existence, it automatically began searching for alternative justifications for its existing structures...
Read entire article at Japan Times
The questions that nobody will ask out loud about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: How much is enough?
How many new members can NATO afford to take on? If Georgia had already been a member last August, would NATO have gone to war with Russia in its defense? And how far beyond Europe should it try to operate?
When U.S. President Barack Obama asks NATO countries to send more troops to Afghanistan, few member nations will comply, but nobody will ask what a "North Atlantic" alliance is doing in the middle of an Afghan civil war.
Well, it is a party, after all, and nobody wants to spoil it. NATO marked its 60th anniversary Saturday in Strasbourg and Kehl, and that really is something to celebrate: The organization's survival for 20 years after the disappearance of the threat that justified its formation defies most historical precedents. It will probably be around for another 20, too, but quite soon it will have to rethink the heedless expansion of both membership and commitments that have characterized the last 20.
History offers few other examples of alliances that outlived the conflict that gave them birth, but NATO has added 10 new members since the collapse of the Soviet Union and has expanded its area of operations outside the North Atlantic region for the first time. Two more countries, Croatia and Albania, were welcomed into the alliance April 1, for a total of 28, and a further three (Macedonia, Ukraine and Georgia) have already been told that they will eventually be allowed to join.
Under President Nicolas Sarkozy, France is at last rejoining the NATO integrated military command structure that it left under Charles de Gaulle in 1966. The alliance accounts for 70 percent of the world's military spending, and towers above all potential rivals. This is a remarkably successful organization by any standard, and yet it is also remarkably uncertain about its role and its future.
NATO was never just a traditional alliance such as the Triple Entente of the early 20th century, which was basically a diplomatic agreement despite its success militarily. Members of the alliance didn't train together in peacetime; there was no effort to standardize equipment or coordinate weapons purchases; and there wasn't even much detailed planning for strategic cooperation in the event of war.
By contrast, NATO soon began to evolve an integrated command structure and a large bureaucratic infrastructure. When the end of the Soviet threat in 1989-90 removed the original motive for its existence, it automatically began searching for alternative justifications for its existing structures...