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Editorials In-Depth, 22 June
NATO: A Cold War relic that’s seeking a new purpose
General Studies- II (Important International institutions)
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In a communiqué issued following the June 14 summit of its member-states in Brussels, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), for the first time, explicitly described China as a security risk.
- China has never figured in NATO summit declarations before, except for a minor reference in 2019 to the “opportunities and challenges” it presented.
- This year’s communiqué bluntly states: “China’s stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to Alliance security.”
China’s reaction:
China has reacted sharply, calling the statement a “slander”.
- It has urged NATO to view China’s development rationally, stop exaggerating various forms of ‘China threat theory’.
- It also asked, not to use China’s legitimate interests and legal rights as excuses for manipulating group politics [while] artificially creating confrontations.
Key points about the summit:
Apart from China, the other two threats identified by the NATO communiqué are on predictable lines: Russia and terrorism.
- Tensions with Russia are an inevitable outcome of NATO’s bid to expand eastward into what Russia considers its sphere of influence.
- Trying to bring countries such as Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova under the NATO umbrella was bound to cause a confrontation with Russia, and so it has.
- As Russia sought to protect its interests by “annexing” Crimea and stationing troops in Georgia and Moldova, NATO accused it of acting irresponsibly and breaking the “rules-based international order”.
Reaction of other countries on NATO communiqué:
Soon after the NATO communiqué was issued, both France and Germany sought to put some distance between NATO’s official position and their own perception of China.
- French President Emmanual Macron said, “NATO is a military organisation, the issue of our relationship with China isn’t just a military issue.
- NATO is an organisation that concerns the North Atlantic, China has little to do with the North Atlantic. It’s very important that we don’t scatter ourselves and that we don’t bias our relationship with China.”
- Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany also underscored the danger of overreacting to China.
Containing China:
The Biden administration wants to mobilise NATO member-states behind its larger objective of containing China.
- NATO’s European member states may view China as an economic rival and adversary, but they are unconvinced by the American line that it is an outright security threat.
- This line also, in a way, points to the underlying logic behind NATO’s persistence in the post-Soviet world.
- Unlike the Soviet Union, China offers no alternative vision of society that could make Western capitalism insecure.
What is the NATO?
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) of April 4, 1949.
- NATO was sought to create a counterweight to Soviet armies stationed in central and eastern Europe after World War II.
- It is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 European and North American countries.
History:
NATO, the planet’s largest — and largest ever — military alliance, was formed in 1949 by 12 Allied powers to counter the massive Soviet armies stationed in Eastern and Central Europe after Second World War.
- According to Paul-Henri Spaak, the second Secretary-General of NATO, it was, ironically enough, Joseph Stalin who is the true father of NATO.
- It was Stalin’s overreach — especially with the Berlin blockade of 1948-49 and the orchestrated coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948 — that convinced a diverse set of war-ravaged European nations to come together under an American security blanket.
- The collective defence principle enshrined in NATO’s Article V states that “an attack against one ally is considered as an attack against all allies”.
- The formation of NATO, and its Soviet counterpart, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955, inaugurated the Cold War era.
Key functions of NATO:
NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
POLITICAL function:
NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.
MILITARY function:
- NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes.
- If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations.
- These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO’s founding treaty – Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations.
Headquarters:
- NATO’s Headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium.
- The headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.
Brussels summit 2021:
The 2021 Brussels summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the 31st formal meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
It was held in Brussels, Belgium, on 14 June 2021.
Post-Cold war era:
This bureaucracy succeeded in refashioning NATO for the post-Cold war era.
The refashioning rested on a paradigm shift — from collective defence, which implied a known adversary, to collective security, which is open-ended, and might require action against any number of threats, including unknown ones and non-state actors.
- In other words, the elimination of one threat to Europe — communist Russia — did not necessarily mean that security risks to Europe have vanished.
- For the U.S. on the other hand, NATO has been an ideal vehicle for power-projection around the world — in places beyond the Euro-Atlantic area, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
- It views NATO as a tool to ensure the primacy of American interests across the globe.
- In fact, many would argue that NATO’s real role is as the military arm of a set of advanced, Western capitalist nations led by the U.S., whose elites are predominantly white and whose economies collectively account for more than 50% of the world’s GDP.
New role:
NATO’s post-Cold War role has evolved in tandem with U.S. foreign policy priorities.
- The NATO doctrine of “enlargement”, which Russia calls “expansion”, is essentially about extending the American military footprint by bringing in new members, even if it means alienating other regional powers.
- That is how NATO’s membership today stands at 30, having added 14 members between 1999 and 2020.
Source: The Hindu/ NATO Website
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