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82. How to get out of Afghanistan: NATO's withdrawal through Central Asia
- Author:
- Heidi Reisinger
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- NATO Defense College
- Abstract:
- NATO's decision to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan has forced the Alliance to think long and hard about the "how" associated with such a withdrawal. As a result the strategic importance of the five Central Asian states Kazakhstan, Kyrrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, a politically neglected region, mostly seen as a supplier of raw materials and energy, is likely to increase significantly. During the past ten years the ISAF mission has focused its attention on Afghanistan itself. The only neighboring country taken into serious consideration has been Pakistan, as emblematically shown in the US AfPak policy approach. North of Afghanistan, the Central Asian states have been left on the sidelines and their strategic and political role has been underestimated. However, they are now back on the political agenda as an indispensable transit ground.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Foreign Policy, NATO, and Natural Resources
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Asia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan
83. After Combat, the Perils of Partnership: NATO and Afghanistan beyond 2014
- Author:
- Sten Rynning
- Publication Date:
- 07-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- NATO Defense College
- Abstract:
- NATO is set to terminate its combat mission in Afghanistan and establish Afghan security leadership by the end of 2014 - a process which the Alliance defined as "irreversible" at its Chicago summit on 20-21 May 2012. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will thus complete its mission after thirteen years, and become history. However, NATO is not just packing up and going home. In 2010 the Alliance launched its proposal for an Enduring Partnership with Afghanistan, and in Chicago it declared: "Afghanistan will not stand alone." Afghanistan can count on NATO's "enduring commitment" to the country, and NATO will now prepare "a new training, advising and assistance mission" that can begin in January 2015.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, NATO, International Cooperation, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and Asia
84. NATO Enlargement Reloaded
- Author:
- Karl-Heinz Kamp
- Publication Date:
- 09-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- NATO Defense College
- Abstract:
- The dispute about who will become a new NATO member and when is set to make it back on the transatlantic agenda. Debates in the Alliance have for years been dominated by the operations in Afghanistan or the evolution of NATO's partnership approach, but now the enlargement question is coming up again and might lead to strong disagreements among the allies. All NATO nations certainly concur that the door for new members should remain open; the question is which countries should join the Alliance, and when?
- Topic:
- International Relations, NATO, International Cooperation, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan
85. Emerging Security Challenges: A Glue for NATO and Partners?
- Author:
- Ioanna-Nikoletta Zyga
- Publication Date:
- 11-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- NATO Defense College
- Abstract:
- When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed as a defensive military alliance more than six decades ago, one of its fundamental tasks was to deter Soviet aggression against Western Europe. Since the end of the Cold War, the Allies have come to understand that their security depends on their ability to face threats emerging from well beyond the Euro-Atlantic space. NATO has thus broadened its focus from collective defense to security management beyond its borders: its numerous operations in this capacity have included peace support, peacekeeping, disaster relief and counter-piracy missions. These operations have taken place not only in NATO's traditional areas of intervention such as the Balkans, but also as far afield as the Gulf of Aden, the Horn of Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, NATO, International Security, and Peacekeeping
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, Africa, Europe, and North Atlantic
86. 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
87. 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
88. 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
89. 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
90. 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