House committee approves Israel-NATO legislation
June 27. A U.S. House of Representatives committee unanimously approved a resolution that calls for enhancing Israel’s relationship with NATO.
The resolution, introduced by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), was adopted Tuesday by the House Committee on International Relations.
The resolution recommends upgrading Israel’s affiliation to a “leading member of NATO’s Individual Cooperation Program,” a promotion the bill says ultimately will lead to Israel’s full membership in the alliance.
“Incorporating Israel’s vast experience facing daily threats from Islamist terrorists who seek to do it harm will be a great boon for NATO,” Ros-Lehtinen said.
Israeli officials are not enthusiastic about the prospect of full NATO membership, fearing it could limit the country’s ability to strike its enemies without consultation. The resolution is to be considered by the full House next month. Read More
EU – US Summit , Vienna , 21 June 2006
Commission President José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Council and Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and US President George W. Bush will meet at the EU-US Summit on 21 June in Vienna to discuss foreign policy co-operation, energy security, economy and trade, and other global challenges. On energy, leaders are expected to step up EU-US cooperation to a strategic level and to promote a set of principles for responsible energy policies worldwide. Iran , the Middle East and the promotion of democracy are expected to dominate the foreign policy agenda.
Other participants at the summit will be Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner, Commissioner for Trade Mandelson, and Austrian Foreign Minister Plassnik as well as High Representative Javier Solana from the EU side and Secretary of State Rice from the US side.Read More
St. Petersburg drills antiterrorism ahead of July G8 summit
ST. PETERSBURG, June 21 (RIA Novosti) - St. Petersburg will hold exercises Wednesday on counteracting terrorist attacks involving biological and chemical weapons in the run-up to a summit of the Group of Eight most developed nations in July.
The exercises, which will be conducted by the emergencies and interior ministries, will be staged in the Gulf of Finland and the seaport buildings, where law enforcers will practice dealing with poisonous substances being sprayed into air, the aftermath of a powerful explosion, extinguishing fires and recovering the injured people from under rubble.Read More
By Philip H. Gordon, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Emirates Lecture Series, Spring 2006
Ten years ago, the idea of writing a substantial paper about NATO's role in the Greater Middle East. would have been implausible. Indeed, at that time NATO was only tentatively involved in southeast Europe . let alone southwest Asia . and the organization's own future remained highly uncertain. In August 1995, after four years of hesitation and debate over the issue of extending the zone of operation of what had once been a strictly defensive alliance, NATO intervened militarily for the first time in Bosnia. However, this only occurred after organizations like the United Nations (UN) and the Western European Union (WEU) were seen to have failed, and the mission was not regarded as a precedent for Alliance action in the Middle East or Asia. At the time, few could have envisaged that a decade later NATO would be deploying over 10,000 troops to Afghanistan, training Iraqi military forces in Baghdad and increasing its political and military cooperation with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). That, however, is precisely the situation today.Read More
Nicola Clark and Matthew L. Wald
New York Times
May 31st 2006
PARIS , May 30 — The European Union's highest court ruled Tuesday that the Union had overstepped its authority by agreeing to give the United States personal details about airline passengers on flights to America in an effort to fight terrorism.
The decision will force the two sides to renegotiate the deal at a time of heightened concerns about possible infringements of civil liberties by the Bush administration in its campaign against terrorism, and the extent to which European governments have cooperated.
The ruling gave both sides four months to approve a new agreement, and American officials expressed optimism that one could be reached. But without an agreement, the United States could take punitive action, in theory even denying landing rights to airlines that withhold the information. That could cause major disruptions in trans-Atlantic air travel, which accounts for nearly half of all foreign air travel to the United States. The European Court of Justice, based in Luxembourg, found that the European Commission and the European Council lacked the authority to make the deal, which was reached in May 2004. Specifically, the court said passenger records were collected by airlines for their own commercial use, so the European Union could not legally agree to provide them to the American authorities, even for the purposes of public security or law enforcement.Read More
May 22 2006
May 22 (Bloomberg) -- NYSE Group Inc. made a cash and stock offer of about 8 billion euros ($10.2 billion) for Euronext NV, Europe's second-largest stock exchange, to create the first transatlantic securities market.
Euronext investors would receive stock in the new company and 21.32 euros ($27.12) in cash for each share, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange said in a statement today. The bid amounts to about 71 euros for each Euronext share, or 4.8 percent less than closing price on the Paris stock exchange on May 19.
NYSE Group Chief Executive Officer John Thain wants to unite the 214-year-old New York Stock Exchange with bourses in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon, creating a single market bridging two continents. To succeed, he'll have to beat Deutsche Boerse AG, which made a competing offer last week. The board of Euronext will examine the proposals today, and shareholders will consider the bids at the company's annual meeting tomorrow.Read More
Transantlantic Homeland Defense: Special Report
Center for Technology and National Security Policy
Institute for National Strategic Studies
National Defense University
May 2006
This paper proposes an initiative to enhance transatlantic homeland defense at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) November 2006 Riga Summit and beyond. As NATO develops its capabilities for expeditionary operations, it needs to revitalize plans and capabilities essential to realize its core mission: protecting Alliance territory as outlined in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. This back-to-basics approach is designed to ensure that Allies can protect the transatlantic homeland against an array of new threats and challenges. This initiative would unfold in the context of broader efforts to protect the Euro-Atlantic community. NATO is but one of many institutions —national and international, governmental and nongovernmental—involved in societal security....
Homeland defense—that is, the military’s role in preventing and defending against terrorist attacks on the territory of Alliance members —is an increasingly important imperative for the United States, Canada and Europe. NATO has the opportunity to articulate a strategic direction and planning process for homeland defense to ensure that relevant Alliance activities and capabilities are adapted and integrated to deal with these new threats. …. This initiative would offer NATO both a 21st-century approach to Article 5 and new meaning and credibility in the eyes of NATO publics who are concerned about threats to their homelands. This report proposes that enhanced transatlantic homeland defense be a major initiative for adoption at the 2006 Riga Summit and completion at the 2008 summit. Accompanying this initiative would be parallel proposals on strengthening partnerships with nonmembers and further improving NATO’s military forces and capabilities for new-era missions. The initiative would include four categories of homeland defense, none of which would address expeditionary, counterterrorism, natural disaster, and humanitarian missions outside the NATO area. In some cases, capabilities created for homeland defense purposes could be used within and outside the NATO area for such civil-military missions. … NATO will need improvements in physical assets and strengthened strategic planning and operating capacities. It also will require close coordination and harmonization with national governments, many of which view control of homeland security resources as vital manifestations of their sovereignty.
Read More....
The Real Business of NATO
By Risto E.J. Penttila
International Herald Tribune
May 16 2006
(...) NATO has already become a global policeman. The question
now is whether it will turn out to be a good cop or a bad cop.
If NATO wants to be a good cop, it must work out principles and
decision- making procedures for the most likely crises of the future -
even if those crises are a far cry from the war games played during the
Cold War.
If NATO continues to deny that it has become a global policeman, it will act without legitimacy and without a moral compass. In other words, it will be a bad cop.
(...)
NATO claims to defend freedom, democracy and liberty. Well, freedom, democracy and liberty are at stake when people are being slaughtered in Darfur. The same principles are also at stake when war-torn countries are trying to rebuild themselves.
Read More...
Cheney Backs Balkan States for NATO and EU Membership
May 08
United States Vice President Cheney praised the three countries of Albania, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, for their willingness to undertake democratic reforms and for taking part in US-led military operations. His tone was a marked contrast to his criticism of Russia made to Baltic and Black Sea heads of state in Vilnius on Thursday.
Read More...
State's Fried Says NATO not "Counterweight" to United Nations
By Vince Crawley
May 03
Washington -- The good news is that the United States and Europe are cooperating again; the bad news is that they are facing some of the world’s most dangerous, intractable problems, a senior U.S. diplomat says.
“Unilateralism is out. Effective multilateralism is in,” Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, said May 2 at a national conference of editorial writers in Washington.
Fried said the United States and Europe are “working to make NATO the centerpiece alliance through which the trans-Atlantic democratic community deals with security challenges around the world.”
But NATO is not a “counterweight” to the larger United Nations, Fried said. The international organizations are “compatible,” he said, adding that NATO is different from the United Nations because it is an alliance of “trans-Atlantic democracy, so it’s based on underlying values,” and it also is a proven military alliance able to put together and deploy capable forces for specific missions.
Read More...
Looking to the Future: NATO Training Mission-Iraq
by Rick Lynch and Phillip D. Janzen, Joint Forces Quarterly, Issue 40
May 2006
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been called the most successful military alliance in modern history. Achievements in forestalling Soviet expansion in Europe and in conducting the peace and stability operations in the Balkans demonstrate future utility for the organization. However, NATO is at a crossroads. Terror attacks on Western interests during the last decade were punctuated by the events of September 11, 2001. The former collective defense posture of the Alliance is now challenged both politically and militarily to engage in broader world policy. As a result, NATO politicians and strategic planners are confronted by operational considerations well beyond the bounds of Europe but with serious implications at home.
(...)
"NATO must change radically if it is to be effective. . . . It must modernize or be marginalized." Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), General James Jones, USMC, emphasized the need to move NATO beyond its Cold War thinking of static defense, while capitalizing on its capabilities to shape and influence the 21st- century security environment: "We have too much capability for the past and not enough capacity for the future.
Read More...
US Expected to Push for bigger NATO role in Darfur
Sudan Tribune
April 26
April 26, 2006 (SOFIA, Bulgaria) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to push NATO allies this week to accept a more robust role for the alliance helping African peacekeepers end political and ethnic strife in Sudan’s Darfur region.
On Darfur, Washington has been urging NATO to step up its support for African Union peacekeepers, which so far has been limited to airlifts and a small training mission for African Union commanders.
The U.S. wants NATO to provide the Africans with logistics, communications, transport, planning, intelligence and expanded training - including an unspecified number of instructors and other experts on the ground in Sudan.
Read More...
U.S. Quits Council Race, Possibly Fearing Defeat
Thalif Deen
April 08
The United States, which has been lambasted for human rights abuses both by members of its armed forces in Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad and by U.S. law enforcement officials in the Guantanamo detention facility in Cuba, has backed out of a hotly contested race for membership in the newly-created U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC).
(...
)If the United States contested and lost, it would
have been a resounding public slap for a country which is a self-styled
promoter of human rights but which still justifies abuses in the name
of fighting terrorism.
Read More...
Algeria, Israel, Morocco, to join NATO Maritime operations
By-Agence France Presse(AFP)
April 08
NATO has accepted a proposal that Algeria, Israel and Morocco take part in an alliance maritime operation.
"NATO has given its agreement in principle that the three countries should take part" in an operation to monitor merchant shipping in the area of the Strait of Gibraltar, NATO deputy general secretary Alessandro Minuto Rizzo told reporters.
The participants have agreed to set up a "partnership cell" to make easier cooperation between the alliance and the countries of the south, Rizzo said.
Read More...
NATO considers closer ties with other countries
FT-By Daniel Dombey
April 03
NATO is considering creating closer military ties with countries like Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Finland or even Japan and South Korea, in an initiative pushed by the US but opposed by France.
Washington has been gathering support for the idea of a more flexible "global partnership" which would lead to a rationalization of the organization's web of partnerships but also push for "advanced partnerships" with Nordic, Asian and Australian countries. Moreover, such initiative would boost ties with countries that already cooperate with the alliance such as New Zealand, Australia, Finland and Sweden participationg in the Afghanistan mission.
"It makes sense to consider making this community stronger. We need as many countries as possible that share our values and have effective forces on the same team to face all the challenges we are seeing in places such as Afghanistan," Nato’s James Appathurai told the FT.
Yet France is uneasy with the idea as it fears it would further strengthen the US position in the alliance.
Read More...
NATO:Where is it Headed? Speech by Kurt Volker, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
March 31
"...we know the value of the world's core democratic community speaking with a united and clear voice. We need to work together with Europe as a single democratic, transatlantic community not just for our combined resources, but for our combined political weight, which embodies a critical mass of moral authority that exceeds what each of us can provide individually
...
We are reinvesting in NATO, the
most successful and most promising Alliance in the history
of the world. And this is where I'd like to spend the
balance of my time today.
...I have already noted that we
believe that at Riga, NATO should develop its relationship
with global security partners, such as Australia or Japan,
and set the stage for decisions on enlargement at its next
Summit in 2008.
That is a big agenda. It reflects the increased tempo of operational activity at NATO, and the increasing frequency with which our leaders to NATO to tackle a wide range of problems. It reflects a core fact which has been true of NATO since the beginning: NATO is the essential venue for strategic dialogue and consultations, and operationalizing the collective will of the transatlantic democracies.
Read More
How to go Global
Economist.com
March 23
A quiet revolution is occuring in what America expects of its friends.
GEORGE BUSH may be consumed at home defending his policies in Iraq
against the 60% of Americans who now disagree with his handling of the
war. But Europeans hoping that the hard lessons being learned daily in
Baghdad and Ramadi would force the administration to adopt a more collegial foreign policy are at last starting to see results. Why, then, are some of them fretting that the transatlantic alliance is about to drift farther apart?
Read More...
UN seeks to mollify US over rights council
FT-By Mark Turner at the United Nations
March 10
The United Nations General Assembly has delayed until next week a decision to create a Human Rights Council, in a last-ditch attempt to overcome US objections and avoid a damaging vote that could unravel the project altogether.
The new council is meant to replace the widely discredited Human Rights Commission in Geneva, but the US says it would vote against it because its proposed form marks insufficient progress.
European and other UN members, as well as Kofi Annan, the secretary-general, agree the proposed council is not as strong as they hoped, but believe the current text is as good as they can get, and does mark a substantial step forward.
US opposition has focused on the mechanism by which the council’s members are chosen. Washington says any candidate should win two-thirds approval in the 191-member UN General Assembly, but that was opposed by more than 120 countries. The current proposal says an absolute majority is sufficient. Read More
EU urges an energy pact with Russians
By Judy Dempsey International Herald Tribune
Thursday, March 9
BERLIN. Russia took center stage in European energy discussions Wednesday as the European Union urged its 25 members to form an energy pact with Moscow, while Poland, once again the renegade, presented an energy security plan that would exclude Russia, one of the Continent's main suppliers.
Speaking in Brussels, José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said he would hold talks with President Vladimir Putin of Russia later this month on intensifying the EU's energy relationship with Moscow.
"We need a new partnership with Russia," Barroso said. "We are interdependent. If we need a flow of energy from Russia, namely gas, I believe that it is also in the interest of Russia to have a stable market and a stable relationship with such an important customer as the European Union." Read More
US general says NATO wants cargo planes despite tight budgets
By Rebecca Christie
March 6
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization still wants its own cargo planes despite their expense, a top military officer said Monday.
Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, commander of U.S. European Command and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, said the alliance needs medium- and long-range planes to carry out its growing workload. Candidates include the Airbus (ABI.YY) A400M and Boeing Co.'s (BA) C-17.
But NATO member nations will have to come to terms with the cost of their ambition, he said at a Pentagon press briefing. NATO military missions now span Afghanistan and Africa as well as ongoing operations in the Balkans.
"One of the interesting realities of the alliance is that there is great political will to do more," Jones said. "But unfortunately, the other side of that coin is that we haven't seen an equal political will to resource more, and that has to be corrected." Read More
Berlusconi at U.S. Congress: EU and NATO democracy tools
(AGI) Washington DC, March 1
The West is, and has to be, one. "There cannot be two wests. Europe needs AMerica, and America needs EUrope", that goes "for the political, economic and military aspects" said PM Berlusconi speaking at the US Congress, reasserting the need to make a common effort, strengthening and backing the Atlantic Pact, the alliance which has always guaranteed freedom and peace. That's why - said Berlusconi - other countries, such as the RUssian Federation, should join NATO... Read More
