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Begin New Search Publishing Institution NATO Defense College Publication Year within 25 Years

111. Can NATO Find a Role for Itself vis-À -vis China?

Author:
James Boutilier
Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
NATO is at a crossroads. This is not the first time that Brussels has been faced with critical decisions about the direction, character and raison d'être of this unique and remarkable organization. But this time the stakes are even higher. The major centers of global power are all weak simultaneously for individual and inter-connected reasons. The greatest power on earth and NATO's banker, the United States, is confronting almost insurmountable levels of debt and talk about the end of the American empire has become commonplace. The European community is reeling from the cumulative effect of debt crises. And China, the 21st century's "workshop of the world" (and in the eyes of some a potential savor of ailing economies in Europe) has begun to see its economy slow disturbingly. At the same time, two other phenomena are unfolding; the rapid and profound shift in the global centre of economic gravity from the Euro-Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific region and the winding down of NATO's involvement in Afghanistan. The latter, of course, raises the inevitable question: "What next?" The former raises a related question: "Does NATO's future lie in Asia?"
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, NATO, and Hegemony
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, China, Europe, and Asia

112. NATO and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) security: Prospects for Burden Sharing

Author:
Sally Khalifa Isaac
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
This paper was researched and written before the upheaval in the Arab world. It highlights many aspects of the limitations in NATO's relations with its Arab partners. It argues that the current settings governing NATO-Arab relations feature no concrete cooperation schemes.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, and Arabia

113. Planning Ahead for a Peacekeeping Mission on the Golan Heights: a Role for NATO?

Author:
Celine Touboul
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
This research aims at examining whether NATO could be the provider of an international force to supervise the implementation of an Israeli-Syrian peace treaty. It proceeds by outlining the main characteristics of the peacekeeping mission needed for that task, based on the likely provisions of the future Israeli-Syrian peace treaty.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, and Syria

114. NATO's Fight Against Terrorism: Where Do We stand?

Author:
Claudia Bernasconi
Publication Date:
04-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
Terrorism has played a major role in shaping the global security landscape over the last decade, one important manifestation of this being its consequences for NATO. The 9/11 attacks resulted in a considerable and unexpected commitment for the Alliance, which subsequently experienced a reorientation towards new challenges; within a very short time, terrorism reached the very top of NATO's agenda. A decade after 9/11 - and with the Alliance nourished by the lifeblood of the New Strategic Concept - it is time for a critical assessment. What has NATO done? What are the shortcomings of its actions? What is left to do? The role played by the Alliance, together with the goals thus achieved, will be brought into focus in the first part of this study. Following this, an investigation into the real limits NATO encounters in combating terrorism will lead us to ponder the efforts which are still to be undertaken, highlighting potential future recommendations.
Topic:
Defense Policy, NATO, International Cooperation, Terrorism, International Security, and Reform

115. Building a new military? The NATO Training Mission-Iraq

Author:
Florence Gaub
Publication Date:
04-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
The military is the cradle of the state - simply because security precedes any social or economic development. In the 1990s, this consideration led to the advent of Security Sector Reform, essentially the consequence of the perception that building up strong and viable security institutions under civilian control is a precondition of state consolidation. The multiple defense reforms NATO assisted in many former Warsaw Pact member states, and the NATO Training Cooperation Initiative launched in 2006, are part of the consequent logic of military development aid, which is not entirely altruistic. Security is an intertwined construct, and the Alliance relies on stability and security in other states in order to ensure its own. In this context, NATO's Training Mission-Iraq (NTM-I) is just a logical step - although surprising to some, given that it was Iraq that caused the Alliance a "near-death experience." Four years later it was followed by a sister mission in Afghanistan, indicating a trend in security force assistance that is likely to grow.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Military Strategy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Middle East

116. NATO's Nuclear Posture Review: Nuclear Sharing Instead of Nuclear Stationing

Author:
Karl-Heinz Kamp
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
On January 25, 2011 the first meeting of NATO's "Deterrence and Defense Posture Review" (DDPR) took place. This acronym describes a new Committee consisting of the Deputy Permanent Representatives of all NATO member countries, chaired by the NATO Deputy Secretary General Claudio Bisogniero. Its task is no less than to find a new Alliance consensus on the role of nuclear weapons in NATO's overall deterrence and defense posture. DDPR is set to address the crux of the nuclear question - in other words, "how to deter whom with what?"
Topic:
Defense Policy, NATO, Nuclear Weapons, and Nuclear Power
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany

117. Russia's strategies in Afghanistan and their consequences for NATO

Author:
Marlène Laruelle
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
In July 2011, the first U.S. troops started to leave Afghanistan - a powerful symbol of Western determination to let the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) gradually take over responsibility for national security. This is also an important element in the strategy of Hamid Karzai's government, which seeks to appear not as a pawn of Washington but as an autonomous actor in negotiations with the so-called moderate Taliban. With withdrawal to be completed by 2014, the regionalization of the "Afghan issue" will grow. The regional powers will gain autonomy in their relationship with Kabul, and will implement strategies of both competition and collaboration. In the context of this regionalization, Russia occupies an important position.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Regional Cooperation, and Military Strategy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Russia, and United States

118. Taking Stock of NATO's Response Force

Author:
Jens Ringsmose
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
"We are there", then NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, gleefully told reporters at the Riga summit in November 2006. Only four years after formally agreeing to the creation of a 25,000 strong deployable and technologically advanced allied force the NATO Response Force (NRF) the Atlantic Alliance thus declared its new military tool a "fully operational capability" (FOC). NATO, so it seemed, had created a potent instrument of power projection and a catalyst for transformation at record speed. However, the political enthusiasm surrounding the NRF was soon to evaporate and for good reasons: as a result of depressingly low fill rates and political differences as to what operational role the force should actually play, the Alliance has been propelled to agree to no less than two major overhauls of the concept since late 2006. Not even a year subsequent to the FOC declaration in October 2007 NATO policy-makers approved the first major revision of the NRF, diminishing the size of the rapid response force significantly. In June 2009, NATO decided to revise the concept for the second time. What was intended to be the Alliance's mailed fist and "a show-case of NATO resolve and collective commitment to military transformation" has thus become a force largely on paper. As pointed out by Hans Binnendijk, one of the NRF-concept's intellectual fathers: "The NRF is a force that should be on steroids, and instead it's on life support".
Topic:
NATO, Politics, and Military Strategy
Political Geography:
Atlantic Ocean

119. Piracy - threat or nuisance?

Author:
Alessandro Schieffler
Publication Date:
02-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
Aspate of high-profile hijackings over the New Year and the publication of the 2009 Annual Piracy Report issued by the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre in mid-January have brought the piracy problem back on stage. Despite the employment of naval forces from the European Union, NATO and various nations in counter-piracy and counter-terrorism missions, the figures for 2009 are alarming: according to reports, from 2008 to 2009 piracy grew by almost 40%. It is not only since pirates captured the Sirius Star, a tanker carrying about 25% of Saudi Arabia's daily oil production, that we have also started to worry about the possible economic damage caused by these piratical activities: about 95% of all world trade is handled by maritime transport, with the shipping business itself accounting for 5% of global GDP. About 50,000 vessels are employed, most of them passing through bottlenecks such as the Gulf of Aden or the Malacca Straits, and therefore are exposed to attacks from ashore. Fears about the high economic cost of piracy seem therefore all too justified.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Oil, Terrorism, Maritime Commerce, and Piracy
Political Geography:
Europe

120. NATO: peacekeeping in the Holy Land? A feasibility study

Author:
Florence Gaub
Publication Date:
03-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
In 2000, President Clinton suggested the presence of an international force to oversee security following an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. This could be a NATO force, according to Thomas Friedman. His idea was revived in 2008 by President Obama's National Security Advisor James Jones. The suggestion of a NATO presence in the Middle East sparked a debate that up to now has revolved around a multitude of aspects: the pros and cons, the timing, the actors of such a NATO involvement, the possible preconditions and consequences, and has also triggered a debate in Germany on whether the conduct of patrols in the civility of Israel would be reconcilable with Germany's past.
Topic:
NATO, International Cooperation, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and Germany