NATO Looking Ahead To a Mission Makeover New Members, Force and Philosophy

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday November 05, 2002 15:03 by washington post

Now that Ireland has voted for Nice, the agenda can move forward...

NATO Looking Ahead To a Mission Makeover New Members, Force and Philosophy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5067-2002Nov4?language=printer

By Robert G. Kaiser and Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 5, 2002; Page A01

BRUSSELS -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization appears set to embrace a radically new military posture and strategy that would profoundly alter the shape and mission of the world's most significant military alliance, according to NATO officials here and government officials in a half-dozen European capitals.

In a series of interviews, these officials said the planned changes -- on the agenda of a NATO summit in Prague beginning Nov. 21 -- could remake the alliance more significantly than the other major item on the agenda, the admission of seven new members from Eastern Europe. A consensus on their entry was reached last summer, but invitations will be issued officially only during the Prague meeting.

Most dramatically, the NATO heads of government could announce creation of a multi-national rapid deployment force of about 21,000 troops that would allow NATO to operate quickly and effectively against new enemies far from Europe, the area NATO was formed to protect against the Soviet Union 53 years ago. NATO members may also announce commitments to acquire new aircraft and equipment that would make this an effective force and allow it to deploy on a week's notice.

"We're deconstructing the old NATO to build a new one to meet the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction," said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance.

Burns is one of a group of NATO officials pressing for changes they believe will preserve its importance. That means being willing and able to confront threats to the security of NATO members wherever they arise -- very likely far from Europe. NATO's board of directors, the North Atlantic Council, quietly negotiated a new agreement to this effect earlier this year, which NATO foreign ministers ratified -- without attracting any publicity -- at a meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, last spring.

After years of debate over whether NATO should operate "out of area," meaning out of Europe, the foreign ministers agreed that "NATO must be able to field forces that can move quickly to wherever they are needed" so the alliance can "more effectively respond collectively to any threat of aggression against a member state." This was an important step toward the new NATO rapid deployment force idea.

"It was done by stealth, but everyone was conscious of its significance," said a West European ambassador to NATO who asked to remain anonymous. "No one wanted it to become a controversial political matter at home." The accord was overshadowed by the announcement on the same day of a new agreement with Russia making it a kind of associate member through a new NATO-Russia joint council.

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