One of the challenges facing anyone who wishes to write on the war in Afghanistan is to squeeze this fiendishly difficult topic into an appropriate framework. It is not easy to find an approach that avoids oversimplifying the issues, or bamboozling the reader into boredom, confusion, deep cynicism, or a combination of all three.
What NATO has demonstrated in the past 20 years is its utility as facilitator of action by its members, deployed on the basis of what are seen as the compelling strategic and political judgements of the time. Despite this, US Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, has recently warned of a dismal future for the transatlantic alliance. Yet we should not assume that the Alliance is condemned to possible irrelevance.
This collection of articles offers insightful and diverse perspectives on the Arab uprisings, and expands to consider political unrest outside the Arab world.
When Europe lay devastated after WWII and seemed menaced by the Soviet Union, a cross Atlantic military alliance was needed to preserve European freedom. Through a patchwork of military commands and an influx of American troops, a protective wall of security was created within which European recovery and democratization could take place. However, today, NATO is irrelevant and needs a respectful termination.
Gaddafi has long had form as a murderer. Neither Britain nor America have forgotten his role in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. With intervention, the West sends a clear message to all Arabs and those who rule over them whether despots or occupying states. To stand with those who want democracy can only ever be the right thing to do. As Tony Blair has said, the case for western intervention is as strong now as it has ever been.
NATO’s lack of success to date in Afghanistan can be attributed to four factors: the reluctance to make difficult choices in state-building, the failure to confront Islam, the failure to confront Kabul, and the influence of China. While NATO may still eventually win, it will have been at tremendous cost and time, and Afghanistan will have posed a great opportunity cost for other NATO objectives.
Despised by Bismarck as ’not worth the life of a single German solider’’ and described by Churchill as ‘having too much history to consume’’, the region of the Western Balkans is returning to the agenda. The EU and the USA must step in and show that they are up to this ultimate test of bringing the last remaining non-EU island into the orbit of the Union and NATO.
The idea of joint Russia-NATO ballistic missile defenses remains controversial and far-fetched. But how big are the obstacles to a genuine Russia-NATO missile defense cooperation and is overcoming them worth the trouble? The most obvious issue with bringing the idea into reality is the incompatibility of NATO and Russian radar and interceptor components, which complicates intelligence sharing and requires a considerable number of technical adjustments on both sides
The kind of conventional military brinkmanship going on at the common NATO-Russia border is not good news. A phenomenon not seen since the frostiest Cold War periods. If the last East-West confrontation offers a cautionary tale, it is that the situation urgently needs to be de-escalated, before worst-case scenarios become self-fulfilling prophecies.
The Truman doctrine was a manifestation of foreign policy resulting from the insecurities and fears of Soviet power filling the vacuum in Europe. Together with the Marshall Plan it solidified the reality of a divided Europe and a divided world.
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