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21. Anchoring the Alliance

Author:
Nicholas Burns, Damon Wilson, and Jeff Lightfoot
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
NATO leaders will gather in Chicago in May to discuss the war in Afghanistan, defense capabilities, and global partnerships. These are crucial issues for the Alliance, but they will not address the "dim and dismal" outlook warned against by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in his June 2011 farewell speech in Brussels. That outcome is not preordained. It can be avoided if individual allies recommit to the Alliance and take the necessary steps to reinforce, or 'anchor,' the NATO Alliance in the decade ahead.
Topic:
NATO, Globalization, International Cooperation, and International Security

22. Achieving International Cyber Stability

Author:
Franklin D. Kramer
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The most disruptive potential cyber security concern is the capacity of information technology to generate or escalate geopolitical conflicts into open or uncontained hostilities through attacks on operational networks. Undermining critical capabilities such as the military or the electric power grid would be highly destabilizing and potentially escalatory, generating a perceived need to move a confrontation toward conflict or to escalate a contained conflict into a broader arena.
Topic:
International Cooperation, International Law, Science and Technology, and International Security

23. Nuclear Issues for NATO After the Strategic Concept

Author:
Walt Slocombe
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
What Does the 2010 Strategic Concept Say (and Not Say) About Nuclear Weapons Issues? The Strategic Concept (SC) adopted at the Lisbon Summit in November 2010 includes a number of propositions that define NATO's future nuclear policy which, explicitly or otherwise, serve to highlight the questions that remain to be resolved. Most fundamentally, the SC, having enumerated NATO's "core tasks" as collective defense against attack, management of crises "that have the potential to affect Alliance security," and cooperation with others "to enhance international security," declares that "[d]eterrence, based on an appropriate mix of nuclear and conventional capabilities, remains a core element of our overall strategy."
Topic:
Defense Policy, Nuclear Weapons, and International Security
Political Geography:
Europe, North America, and Lisbon

24. On Cyber Peace

Author:
Les Bloom and John Savage
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The best deterrence to cyber conflict is to aggressively pursue national and international risk mitigation at the same time that we explore a full-spectrum of cyber capabilities. Nations should strive to reduce the emerging cyber arms race by developing a basis for trust. The international community has already taken useful steps in this direction with, for example, the European Convention on Cybercrime and the UN report on cyber security which calls for a set of actions that would make information infrastructures more secure.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Science and Technology, Terrorism, War, and International Security
Political Geography:
United Nations

25. The Five Futures of Cyber Conflict and Cooperation

Author:
Jason Healey
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The word cyberspace is nearly thirty years old, and during that time, academics, theorists, and strategists have been considering how conflict will unfold in this new domain .As yet, though, little has been published on what kinds of different futures may await us .For example, many writers seem to imply that cyberspace itself is relatively static, when it is in fact constantly transformed through changes in usage and technology. Indeed, today's generation of digital natives has never known a world without the Internet, and their experience of cyberspace—especially in terms of security, privacy, and collaboration—will be very different from that of previous generations weaned on mainframes, modems, desktop computers, and AOL. If cyberspace is different and younger generations use it differently, then future conflict and cooperation in cyberspace may be unlike anything experienced or even envisioned by Cold War-era thinkers and strategists.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Science and Technology, Terrorism, and International Security
Political Geography:
North America

26. Naval Future: International Preponderance Through Naval Partnership

Author:
Martin Murphy and Lee Willett
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
In 2005 US Navy ship numbers fell lower than at any point since 1916 and little has changed since then. The Royal Navy now has fewer ships and sailors than Nelson had at Trafalgar. It is of course true that counting hulls is no longer a reliable way of assessing naval power yet numbers matter.
Topic:
Defense Policy, International Cooperation, International Security, and Military Strategy
Political Geography:
United States

27. Nordic-Baltic Security in the 21st Century

Author:
Robert Nurick
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Look at the security arrangements for the eight countries of the Nordic and Baltic region and two things are immediately apparent. The countries that have the greatest needs have the worst security. And the countries that have the strongest defense are divided.
Topic:
NATO, Diplomacy, Energy Policy, and International Security

28. The Challenge: NATO Amidst Geopolitical Realities

Author:
Rob de Wijk
Publication Date:
02-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Should NATO remain primarily a collective defense alliance or should it be transformed into a worldwide security provider? This question lies at the core of the debate in allied capitals as NATO develops its next Strategic Concept. New security challenges, as well as NATO's military operations in Afghanistan, suggest that the pressure for change has become irresistible.
Topic:
NATO, Climate Change, Economics, Politics, and International Security
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Europe, and North America

29. The United States, NATO and the European Union : Partnership in the Balance

Author:
Robert Hunter and Sven Biscop
Publication Date:
02-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The drafters of the new Strategic Concept for NATO must realize that the transatlantic context in which the Alliance operates has changed fundamentally. Accordingly, in addition to improving NATO-EU relations and streamlining the NATO apparatus, basic changes in the organization of transatlantic relations overall are required, taking into account two major developments.
Topic:
International Cooperation and International Security
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and North America

30. NATO Missile Defense: Is Europe Ready?

Author:
Edgar Buckley
Publication Date:
11-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
No wonder everyone looks forward to a positive decision on making territorial missile defense a NATO task at the upcoming Lisbon Summit. Allies will breathe a collective sigh of relief for two reasons. First, proliferation of missile technology has exposed Europe to real future risks and threats, which can only be countered defensively through early preparation and deployments. Second, absent such a decision, the United States' Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) – to be deployed in Europe whatever the summit decides – is a fundamental challenge to NATO, detracting from its overall responsibility for collective defense and raising acutely uncomfortable issues, such as the prospect of U.S.-commanded defenses operating in parallel with Article 5 defense of NATO.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, and International Security
Political Geography:
Europe