THE FALSE CHOICE BETWEEN “HOME” AND “AWAY” MISSIONS

There don´t have to be a kind of choice between applying Article 5 and out-of-area operations, because they go hand in hand. Today, without a single overriding threat, differences in geography and history will push allies towards different conclusions about risks to their territory. Doubts over NATO’s commitment to defend Central Europe drain support in the region for ISAF. Reassurance measures can arrest the trend. The alliance needs to find the resources to guarantee a successful reinforcement in case of a crisis; mutual defence is the NATO’s core purpose.

New allies are anxious because, in their mind, NATO has ceased to function as crisis manager in Europe. But NATO should also create a mechanism that would monitor crises on NATO's borders – not just those with Russia but all borders. Finally, the alliance needs to be able to address the needs of both types of missions at the same time. The key to its continued validity lies in being able to convincingly address multiple challenges at the same time.

Read more in Policy Paper prepared especially for 5th GLOBSEC Security Conference by TOMAS VALASEK, Director of foreign policy and defence of the Centre for European Reform (London) and Chairman of the Slovak Group of Experts on the new NATO´s Strategic Concept of the project STRATCON 2010 at:http://www.ata-sac.org/globsec2010/uploads/documents/Tomas%20Valasek%20-%20The%20False%20Choice%20Between%20Home%20and%20Away%20Missions.pdf