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U.S. Defense1 Secretary Robert Gates called on the NATO alliance Tuesday to chart a clear path toward relevance2 and enhanced capability3 as it faces a different set of threats than it was founded to address more than 60 years ago. Gates wants a key NATO document being drafted this year to advance a transformation4 theme U.S. leaders have been pressing for a long time.
Secretary Gates told a NATO conference in Washington that the new Strategic Concept officials are set to write this year needs to address a wide range of issues in what he called a "succinct,... comprehensible and compelling" document that impresses Europeans raised in a post-Cold War and post-September 11 world.
"The demilitarization of Europe - where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse5 to military force and the risks that go with it - has gone from a blessing6 in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting7 peace in the 21st [century]," he said.
Secretary Gates said Europe's people must come to understand the importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as an international security alliance, not just an organization for the protection of Europe's territorial8 integrity, as it was at its founding in 1949.
"Threats are more likely to emanate9 from failed, failing or fractured states than from aggressor states, where dangerous, non-state actors often operate from within nations with which we are not at war, or from within our own borders, and where weapons proliferation and new technologies make possible the specter of chaos10 and mass destruction in any of our capitals," he said .
Gates said NATO needs to change the way it operates - improving its budget process, investing in future capabilities11 and closing bases it no longer needs. He noted12 that for many years, the member-nations have not been willing to meet requirements for cargo13 planes, refueling aircraft, helicopters and intelligence capabilities. The secretary said the alliance needs to "fundamentally change how it sets priorities and allocates14 resources," so it can remain "relevant" in a changing "strategic landscape."
Netherlands' PM Jan Peter Balkenende (L) announces in The Hague that the 2nd largest party in his alliance is quitting, 20 Feb 2010. The Dutch coalition15 government collapsed16 Saturday over irreconcilable17 differences on whether to extend the military mission in Afghanistan
U.S. officials have pressed those points many times in recent years, urging Europeans to spend more on defense and be more supportive of NATO efforts - ranging from missile defense to the war in Afghanistan. U.S. officials say there has been progress, particularly in getting more European troops for Afghanistan.
But British researcher Sally McNamara of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation doubts whether a new document from the alliance will change what she calls the "pacifistic" trend in many European countries.
"If we look at the problems that NATO has, [such as] burden sharing, it's Afghanistan. We're in Afghanistan right now and there is nothing about a piece of paper or a treaty that is going to more equitably18 share the burden in Afghanistan. And that is the problem, she said."
A defense expert focusing on NATO issues, McNamara says she was initially19 quite enthusiastic about the plan for a new alliance Strategic Concept document. But as the process has developed, she says she has come to believe that the alliance's 28 nations will be unable to draft the kind of document they need.
"If you look at NATO's last strategic concept in 1999, it was widely regarded as one of the most useless documents because it was too long [and] it had a bit of something for everyone," she said. "This document will almost certainly do that, and that will be a shame because it won't be clear; it won't give any message about the future," said McNamara.
Secretary Gates also mentioned that concern Tuesday, speaking to NATO officials at the National Defense University in Washington.
"NATO needs serious, far-reaching and immediate20 reforms to address a crisis that has been years in the making. And unless the Strategic Concept spurs operational and institutional changes like those I just mentioned, it will not be worth the paper it is printed on," said Gates.
The conference is expected to be the last public discussion of issues related to NATO's new Strategic Concept. In the next phase, experts will draft a document, circulate it among NATO members and make changes needed to get the required approval from all of them, and then put it up for formal endorsement21 at the next NATO summit, which is expected to be held in Lisbon late this year.
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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relevance
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| n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性 | |
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capability
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| n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等 | |
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transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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averse
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| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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territorial
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| adj.领土的，领地的 | |
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emanate
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| v.发自，来自，出自 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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capabilities
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| n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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allocates
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| 分配，分派( allocate的第三人称单数 )； 把…拨给 | |
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coalition
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| n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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irreconcilable
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| adj.（指人）难和解的，势不两立的 | |
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equitably
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| 公平地 | |
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initially
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| adv.最初，开始 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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endorsement
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| n.背书；赞成，认可，担保；签(注)，批注 | |
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