Atlantic Council

News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch says that NATO is in a "crisis of confidence" because Western Europe is "losing its faith in the values and institutions that have kept us free."  He calls for a radical redefinition of the Alliance in order to save it, including extending membership to Australia, Japan, and Israel.

Murdoch, who received the Council's Distinguished Business Leader Award for 2008, told an all-star gathering of nearly one thousand policy makers and opinion leaders that "We must face up to a painful truth: Europe no longer has either the political will or social culture to support military engagements in defense of itself and its allies.  However strong NATO may be on paper, this fact makes NATO weak in practice.  And it means that reform will not come from within."

Accordingly, he continued, "We need to transform this Alliance from a community formed around a map to a community based on common values and a willingness to take joint action in defense of these values."  Indeed, he argued, "Expansion is the only hope of invigorating an Alliance weighed down by those who are no longer willing to commit themselves to defend its founding principles."

Murdoch contended that "Around the world, there is no shortage of nations who share our values, and are willing to defend them.  I am thinking of countries like Australia, which sent troops to Iraq … Israel, which has been fighting Islamic terrorism almost since its founding … and Japan, which generally follows a more 'Western' policy than most of Western Europe."

Ultimately, he argued, "If we continue to define the West or the Alliance as a strictly geographical concept, the Alliance will continue to erode.  But if we define the West as a community of values, institutions, and a willingness to act jointly, we will revive an important bastion of freedom – and make it as pivotal in our own century as it was in the last."

Murdoch cited his personal story as an example: "I was born in Australia, I received my university education in Britain, and I have made my home in America.  Over a long and, I hope, productive life, I have learned that shared values are more important than shared borders."

Read Transcript of Murdoch's Remarks

Press Release for Murdoch's Award