Developing new NATO Strategic Concept

On 22 October 2009, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen discussed the process of developing the Alliance’s new Strategic Concept in a keynote speech at the security conference in Bratislava.
Mr. Rasmussen pointed to newer challenges such as global terrorism, climate change and threats to energy security that have created the need for a new Strategic Concept. Reaching consensus within NATO on whether and how to respond to such challenges has become increasingly difficult, he said.
The Secretary General also stressed the need for continued military transformation, “…to allow us to cover the full spectrum of tasks, from collective defense to peace support operations.” And in the context of the current financial crisis, he said it was all the more pressing to make efficient use of resources through better cooperation, coordination and collective solutions.
The new Concept must include a “Comprehensive Approach”, promoting better coordination with other international actors such as the United Nations, the European Union and the NGO community. It should also “…reaffirm a long-standing NATO objective: to help complete the consolidation of Europe as a continent that is whole, free and at peace. NATO’s open door policy will continue,” said Mr. Rasmussen.
On relations with Russia, he said that we must not let differences between NATO and Russia hold the relationship hostage, because they share a number of common interests such as in Afghanistan, combating terrorism and preventing nuclear proliferation.

Decision to reduce NATO troops in KOSOVO

NATO Defence Ministers on 11th June agreed in Brussels to reduce the KFOR troop presence in Kosovo, taking into account the steady improvement of the security situation there.
“The decision to gradually reduce troop numbers will reflect this [security situation] development,” reads a report issued by NATO headquarters.
The ministers accorded that the transition of KFOR to a “deterrent presence” is to be implemented only gradually, indicating that there would not be a sudden withdrawal of large numbers of troops
NATO Defence Ministers reaffirmed that KFOR would remain responsible for a safe and secure environment in Kosovo and would stay in Kosovo in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 as long as necessary, and until the UNSC decided otherwise. NATO troops entered in Kosovo on June 12, 1999, after 78 days of air strikes on Serb positions aimed at halting ethnic cleansing against Albanians under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. During the initial days of the conflict, NATO's peacekeeping operation had approximately 50,000 troops on the ground.
Currently, the Alliance has 13,800 troops on the ground in Kosovo, and it is expected that ministers will decide to reduce that number to 10,000 by January next year. Kosovo media report that if the security situation in Kosovo remains calm, NATO would reduce its troop numbers by up to 2,000.

The 60th Anniversary of NATO

As NATO celebrates its 60th anniversary, it is in greater demand than ever before.
The Alliance is keeping the peace in Kosovo, it is engaged in both stabilisation tasks and combat operations in Afghanistan, runs an anti-terrorist naval operation in the Mediterranean, assists defence reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, trains Iraqi security forces, and provides support to the African Union.
NATO is at the heart of a vast and expanding network of partnerships with countries from across the globe and is developing closer cooperation with key civilian institutions. And the Alliance’s enlargement process remains a strong incentive for aspirant countries to get their house in order.
In short, at age 60, NATO has become such an indispensable part of the international security environment that it is hard to imagine that it ever could have been otherwise. And yet it was. The initial duration of the 1949 Washington Treaty was modestly set at 20 years, by which time, it was assumed, the post-war recovery of Western Europe would have been completed and the transatlantic defence pact become obsolete.
Few of the people who were present at NATO’s creation would have dared to hope that this Alliance would not only outlast the Cold War conditions that brought it into being, but indeed thrive in a radically different security environment.
The reason why NATO turned from a temporary project into a permanent one is not difficult to understand. It is because the logic of transatlantic security cooperation is timeless. The need for Europe and North America to tackle security challenges together remains as pressing today as it was 60 years ago.
So does the need for a transatlantic institutional framework which allows for political consultation, joint decisions, and common action. Actually only NATO can provide this framework ( article from NATO review).

THE PRESIDENT OBAMA PLAN for RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT

With each passing day, families across America are watching their bills pile up and their savings disappear.
That’s why President Barrack Obama has put forth an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will jumpstart job creation and long-term growth by:
-Doubling the production of alternative energy in the next three years.
-Modernizing more than 75% of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of two million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy bills.
-Making the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years, all of America’s medical records are computerized.
-Equipping tens of thousands of schools, community colleges, and public universities with 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries.
-Expanding broadband across America, so that a small business in a rural town can connect and compete with their counterparts anywhere in the world.
-Investing in the science, research, and technology that will lead to new medical breakthroughs, new discoveries, and entire new industries.

Balkan States: it's time to secure the peace

Bosnia and Kosovo have largely disappeared from public view. Washington and Brussels are hoping the promise of European Union accession will ultimately triumph over remaining ethnic tensions in the region.
Bosnia is a nonfunctioning state living under the constant threat its autonomous Serb region to hold a referendum on independence. The Bosnian Muslim prime minister wants to throw out the Dayton agreement that concluded the Bosnia war in 1995, end Serb autonomy and form a unitary state.
To prevent the return of ethnic violence in Bosnia, the High Representative, who administers the implementation of the Dayton agreements, needs to be reinvigorated with visible backing from the EU, including maintaining its peacekeeping forces. The High Representative should revive constitutional reforms that three years ago came within two votes of approval in the Bosnian parliament.
Newly independent Kosovo, unrecognized by two-thirds of the world's states -- including five EU members -- barely functions after 10 years of U.N. rule. It has high unemployment and little foreign investment and needs enormous foreign assistance.
Given Moscow's opposition, it is not possible to get U.N. Security Council agreement on Kosovo. But the U.S. and the EU, whose new Kosovo mission now operates in the north, can begin the process of reintegrating the Serb-controlled portions of the newly independent state by ensuring that law and order there is not administered by Belgrade.
In Bosnia, Belgrade is working with Moscow to strengthen Serb autonomy with political and particularly economic support.
The root cause for most of this instability still rests in Belgrade. Although its new government is eager to become part of the EU, it insists on governing Serbs in Kosovo and is doing everything possible to reverse its independence.
Despite its constant assurance to seek a European future, Serbia remains mired in the past, failing to turn indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic over to the Hague Tribunal.Acting together, Brussels and Washington managed to end the Balkans wars of the 1990s. It is now time they work together to bring lasting peace to the region. (source Wall Street Journal).