by Silviu Craescu .
The heads of state and governments who attended the NATO Council Summit held in Wales on September 4 and 5, 2014 reached a mutual understanding concerning the next NATO moves.
It was acknowledged the fact that this meeting is taking place at a most critical time for the Euro-Atlantic security.
The new security threats, the Ukrainian crisis, the crisis management, the instability situation in steady growing up across the Middle East and North Africa, were the main topics under debates, were considered the hard core of the Summit’s Final Statement.
Endorsement of Ukraine was henceforth jointly declared as a both military – strategic objective and as an axiological bulwark mainstay to defend the fundamental values, of the democracy, human rights, individual freedom and the ruling of law. In this respect the Alliance stand point was re-confirmed on the strategic concept of collective defense and co-operational security. One of the NATO targets is to secure the Alliance cohesion, developing the partnership with the strategic Allies. The top priority is the NATO reinforcement as set out at the Summit which means to develop the long term operative reaction capabilities development in the context of the latest breaking geopolitical mutations and asymmetrical threats. In this respect were adopted a series of strategic measures included in the NATO Readiness Action Plan. This is meant to bolster a rapid reaction, inter-operational capabilities and the counterstrike operations against changes and security threats in present and in future, potential or actual.
The topic which the NATO Summit focused on most was Russian aggression against Ukraine incurring geopolitical and security tangles, and in the NATO Council view regarded as developing long term consequences on security and peace in Europe, but on the entire world stability as well.
The Great Britain prime minister, Mr David Cameron, recalled the NATO Summit in 1990 held in the great Britain as well, in order to invoke the privileged partnership with the US and highlighted the importance of NATO cohesion to the joint effort of building up a safe world of peace and prosperity. Mr Cameron also stated that in an age of major technological developments and globalization thrive huge benefits and opportunities, but also the higher risk that enormous capabilities to become the possession of terrorist groups.
Mr David Cameron further warned on the latest breaking global scale security threats, represented specifically by the ascent of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.
The NATO convened to re-assert once more the determination, perseverance and hold-together unity in agreement with the Washington Treaty Act, which constitutes the very foundation act and legal basis of the NATO making, reference being made to the final statement but also to other documents as well, such as the Article 5 in the Treaty which in the opinion of the heads of states and governments summoned in Wales represents the legal foundation of the collective system of defense and security, a defensive system in a class of its own at world scale, this being in the opinion of the the NATO Council a serious and major responsibility, which must be assumed.
The Article 5 in the NATO claims: ,, The Parties agree that a military attack against one or more of them either in Europe or in North America shall be construed as an attack against all Parties; therefore, these convene that, should such an attack occurs, each of these Parties, invoking the rights of legitimate self-defense, both individual and collective, acknowledged in the Article from the United Nations Chart, shall help the Party or Parties so attacked, immediately taking up, both individually and in mutual agreement with the other Parties, the measure deemed as necessary to be taken, including the use of armed force, for the purpose of re-establishing and secure the entire NATO coverage area.
Any armed attack of this kind and any measure taken as a follow-up shall be immediately notified to the Security Council. These measures shall come to an end only at the time when the Security Council shall take the necessary measures for re-establishing and maintain the international peace and security.” ( The NATO Treaty Act signed up at Washington on April 4, 1949).
In fact, the prime minister David Cameron considered the annexation of Crimea by Russia, as an illegal action and further invoked the relevance of collective defense, guaranteed in the Article 5, of defending and save-guarding the liberty of territories and populations by way of abiding to the principle of national sovereignty of the states, which is guaranteed by the United Nations Chart as well. This was the also the general consensus of the attendants who joined the NATO Summit Meeting held in Wales.
The top 5 priorities of the NATO Summit Meeting were:
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The Ukraine Crisis and the NATO –Russia relationship.
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The future of Afghanistan.
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Approaching the new threats.
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Reinforcement of the support for NATO Armed Forces.
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Bolstering the strategic partnerships.
The NATO decided to considerably enlarge the military presence in East Europe. This strategic NATO relocation, has a rather very special geostrategic dimension and in a lesser degree it should be deemed as a purely political act.
In the context of the priorities and brand new ways of tackling the current security issues as sketched at the Summit there were established concrete measures and timelines for implementation:
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Enlarge the military presence in East Europe;
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New exercises custom-tailored for environment preservation;
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Relocation of equipment and logistics;
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The NATO Readiness Action Plan Engagement;
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Securing the NATO infrastructure and the necessary resources.
Naturally, these tasks are provided to be carried out in joint co-operation with the allies, being construed as a counter-measure to Ukrainian crisis, deemed as a threat on regional, Euro-Atlantic stability (security). The Alliance re-assured its Eastern members concerning the support and security preservation efforts, meaning to issue an operational kick-back to this crisis.
Another assumed decision, rated as a third in rank NATO Summit priority, and of the North Atlantic Council, respectively involves the strategic objective of the proper financing and replenish by the NATO member-states, of the budget allotted for Defense, each of its members having the duty to endow the army forces and provide a fast reaction capability at short notice, featured with an effective command and control system in place, but also endowed with a high performance communication system.
In this respect it has to be mentioned also that at the NATO Summit Meeting the decision was made to upgrade the support granted to Ukraine concerning a future development of communication facilities and of the command and control system, of the inter-operability.
Among the asymmetrical and new threats against state security, and especially where the Euro-Atlantic space is concerned, it was approached the cyber-terrorist threats issue.
Not so long time back, in 2009, the European Commission adopted the document ,, Protection of Europe against cybernetic attacks and major disruptions: enhancing the degree in training, safe-conduct and resilience”, adopting also ,,The Enhancement Plan for Informatics Critical Infrastructures”.
The measures taken at the EU level on upgrading the cyber security, were in fact updated this year, so that we may talk here about some institutional convergence, a specific inter-dependent and synergic co-operation at the NATO – EU level.
A new strategic measures will be hold at the NATO Summit in Warsaw (Poland) who is preview for july 2016, in the continuation of Wales Summit.
Twenty-five years after the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe, modern-day Poland is by many measures the most successful case of post-communist political and economic transition to market-democracy in Europe. Hence, U.S. President Barack Obama in his speech at Warsaw’s Castle Square in June 2014, rightfully coined the country’s progress as an economic “Miracle on the Vistula”.
Also in the field of security, Poland wasted no time consolidating its position in Europe’s post-Cold War order. Fifteen years ago, in 1999, Poland, together with Hungary and the Czech Republic, joined NATO. The country’s persistence to join the Alliance and the success of its accession paved the way for further NATO enlargement eastwards. As Ronald Asmus, a former U.S. official in the Clinton Administration and a prime architect of NATO expansion, famously writes in his 2002 book Opening NATO’s Door: “The key country was Poland. Its size, strategic importance, and history provided the original impetus for the push for enlargement”. And so it happened. By 2004, NATO would welcome seven other post-communist states and guarantee the future security of nearly one hundred million people from the Baltics to the Black Sea.
Since these historical events, Poland has played a responsible role in the future of European and transatlantic security, contributing to NATO’s continued military and political integration. On the military front, over 25,000 Polish military personnel have served in Afghanistan since Poland joined the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2002, Polish MIG-29s have participated in NATO Air Policing operations in the Baltic since 2006, and Poland regularly forms the theatre for major allied military exercises, such as Steadfast Jazz in November 2013 or Sabre Junction in August 2014. Politically, unlike most other allies, Poland’s growing economy has allowed it to spawn an ambitious military modernization program, and Polish President Bronisław Komorowski has promised that his country would increase its defense spending to 2 percent of its GDP in order to meet the official NATO standard. At the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales, allies also agreed that Warsaw would host the next Summit in 2016-a nod to the successful transformation of Poland and much of Central Europe over the past quarter century and Poland’s political weight in NATO.
Poland’s efforts in the domain of security and defense are certainly no luxury. The security environment today is shifting rapidly. In less than a decade, global strategic trends have changed dramatically, and the dream of expansion of transatlantic security has been replaced by a general feeling of uncertainty. The events in the Levant, the Sahel, and Ukraine have revealed a deeply unstable European neighbourhood, combined with an economic crisis that has led to unhelpful military restraint. Transatlantic cooperation is now facing a very different security environment, in which Poland, Europe and the United States will have to realistically assess how to remain credible security providers.
Naturally, Poland is particularly concerned by the disruptive events in Eastern Europe that have put its military, energy and economic security at risk. The unrest in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, to Russia’s revisionist foreign policy and revanchist military power, to the European Union’s inability or unwillingness to take a stand in its East, and a growing sense that the U.S. is disengaging from European defense matters, are propelling Poland and many other European nations into an era of increasing uncertainty about their own security. In addition, a question remains as to whether NATO’s response to these challenges has effectively strengthened the Alliance’s image of a power to be taken seriously. The turmoil in Ukraine, for instance, has been widely interpreted as a boost for NATO’s strategic unity, but the crisis has also cast serious doubt in NATO’s most eastern member states over whether the Alliance would come to their rescue if they were to face aggression from a revisionist power.
An Alliance increasingly preoccupied by deterrence and strategic credibility will be more receptive to the dangers faced by its border states. For Poland, as the host of the 2016 NATO Summit, there is an opportunity worth seizing. In the next two years, Warsaw will have the chance to more actively shape the NATO agenda, and to seek, together with other allies and the international staff at NATO HQ, solutions for concerns surrounding the future of Alliance resources and capabilities, the commitment of member states toward Article 5 obligations, or the support of their public opinions for high-visibility military operations. NATO has the important task ahead of addressing its most pressing vulnerabilities: from closing the gap on diverging perceptions of threats among member states, to tackling its declining strategic credibility internally and externally, to making the institution more flexible to perform the tasks of collective defense, collective security and crisis management simultaneously.
Hosting the next NATO Summit also offers Poland the chance to encourage the timely implementation of important decisions that were taken in Wales. One such decision is NATO’s Readiness Action Plan that should underpin deterrence with a continuous military preserve in Eastern Europe and the proven capacity to reinforce quickly if one ally was to face aggression. Warsaw has played a very active role in this debate, and the proposed expansion of the NATO outpost base at Szczecin in western Poland therefore forms a critical move to reassure allies in the region. Getting the Readiness Action Plan right is essential because NATO will not present a united front if certain allies continue to feel inadequately protected while others feel that enhanced security in one region is at the expense of NATO’s presence in their own neighbourhood.
Europe’s Iron Curtain might have fallen twenty five years ago, but today the goal of a “Europe whole and free” is again in peril. The NATO Summit 2014 was a positive step toward identifying the most pressing priorities for the Alliance, but it will be essential to create continuity among the conclusions that were arrived at and turn new ideas that were embraced into actions. As Poland and the allies plan for the 2016 NATO Summit in Warsaw, Poland, it should use the lessons of its own history, provide a platform to foster the implementation of NATO’s priorities, and play a leading role in shaping the conversation within the Alliance in the coming years.
A rather complex problem is the NATO reform.
The NATO reform remains still an open to debate topic, even if it either was not analysed actually in extenso during the NATO Summit Meeting, or the media coverage was fuzzy or scarce if any.
It ought to be said, however related to some scepticism, that neither NATO is bound to disintegrate nor the Alliance shall last just for a moment’s necessity purpose. On the occasion of the NATO Summit, it was highlighted the fact that no today-for-tommorow-only decisions shall be made and that the NATO is non some remote, high and recluse club minding a bunch of limited interests. On the contrary, future milestones were set also related to the global security.
We anticipate that the NATO globalization just echoes to the entire society globalization in a deeper sense at all the levels of its intricate levels, structures and components.
The NATO aims to achieve and put the basis of the complex future of the security coverage at the world scale, designing right from these days a brand new military paradigm, conceived as a paradigm of the world security, endowed with a strong protectionist-proactive oriented and offensive-potential dimension.A rather complex problem is the NATO reform.A rather complex problem is the NATO reform.
