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International News Title: Alliance Reborn: An Atlantic Compact for the 21st Century A new report by four Washington think tanks calls for a reinvigorated Atlantic partnership to tackle global challenges and urgent shifts in NATO strategy in Afghanistan and relations with Russia. It proposes that NATO rebalance its “home and away missions;” restructure its military capabilities and command arrangements; adjust decision-making, spending and management practices; and develop a fuller partnership with the European Union and other institutions. As the Obama administration reviews its plans for Afghanistan and prepares for NATO’s 60th Anniversary Summit in April, this report advances concrete policy and defense planning recommendations concerning the Alliance’s evolving missions, capabilities, partnerships, and operational practices. It draws on discussions among a wide range of European and North American officials and experts over the past five months. The report notes that NATO is busier than ever with five current operations. Yet in the wake of much transatlantic discord and mounting troubles in Afghanistan, many are questioning its future. NATO’s three-fold purpose remains: to provide for the collective defense of its members; to serve as the preeminent transatlantic forum for deliberations on security and strategy; and to make war in Europe unthinkable. NATO will be indispensable but insufficient to meet current and future security challenges. It must stretch its missions and connect better with partners, sometimes in the lead, often playing a supporting role, and sometimes joining a broader ensemble. The report calls for Alliance leaders to: * Prepare a new Atlantic Compact that offers legislators and publics a clear political statement of NATO’s future role within a broader transatlantic partnership and informs a new NATO strategic concept to guide future allied political and military priorities. * Integrate NATO and international civilian and military efforts more effectively in a comprehensive approach to help the Afghan government enhance security and governance, and develop a regional approach to stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan. * Launch a dual-track strategy toward Russia of cooperation on mutual interests, if Moscow abides by international norms, and a resolute commitment to defense of current members from any intimidation or aggression. * Carry out NATO’s “home mission” by exercising appropriate capabilities for deterrence and defense of all members and enhancing efforts at “transatlantic resilience” to include guarding the approaches to NATO territory, early-warning and air/missile defenses, counterterrorism activities, consequence management, bio defense, cyber defense, and energy security. * Agree on concerted diplomacy to convince Iran to foreswear nuclear weapons, while exploring how planned U.S. missile defense sites in Europe could be integrated into current NATO plans and considering ways to work with Russia. * Carry out more effective “away” missions in crisis prevention and response by equipping NATO with capable, deployable, and sustainable forces that include a full-spectrum NATO Response Force, enhanced special operations forces, and a new Stabilization and Reconstruction Force (SRF) that would organize, train, and equip to engage in post-conflict operations, compatible with EU efforts. * Apply NATO’s consensus rule only in the North Atlantic Council when setting broad Alliance commitments and when voting on funding, but otherwise limit oversight of operations to countries actually contributing forces. * Streamline NATO military structure to create a three-level command structure for strategic, operational, and deployable forces, including a European Commander for Allied Command Transformation. * Change the way operations are funded and essential capabilities are fielded, including through increased deployability of forces; pooling of certain capabilities, and collaborative procurement. * Keep NATO’s door open while deepening practical security and other cooperation with wider Europe. * Forge a truly strategic NATO-EU partnership; overhaul current partnerships with other countries in Europe, Eurasia, and the broader Middle East; and build deeper partnerships with the UN, the OSCE, and the African Union. All these relationships are critical to the new Comprehensive Approach to conflicts. NATO should establish an Assistant Secretary General to manage these relationships and implement the Comprehensive Approach. The Washington NATO Project is a partnership among the Atlantic Council of the United States, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Center for Technology and National Security Policy, National Defense University, and the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University SAIS. The authors of the report are Daniel Hamilton, Charles Barry, Hans Binnendijk, Stephen Flanagan, Julianne Smith, and James Townsend.
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