NATO

Libya Revisited: Coalition Building and the Future of NATO Operations

Adrienne Chuck — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:50:04 -0600

Please join the Atlantic Council for a public address and conversation with General Charles Bouchard, commander of the NATO military mission in Libya.

Last February, the UN Security Council condemned the use of lethal force by Muammar Gaddafi against protestors in Libya. Following a second UN Security Council resolution, NATO began Operation Unified Protector in March of 2011. Strong leadership and management of NATO and non-NATO countries in this multinational effort led to a successful military campaign that came to a full close on October 23 of last year. One year after the first resolution, and in light of President Obama’s new defense strategy, coalition-building and international partnerships will gain importance in the coming years.

General Charles Bouchard will comment on his role as commander of NATO’s military operations in Libya, the role of partners within and outside of NATO, and the prospects for future international cooperation.

Prior to assuming the role of commander, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Unified Protector on March 25, 2011, General Bouchard was appointed deputy commander, Allied Joint Force Command, Naples, in October 2009. A tactical helicopter pilot by trade, General Bouchard’s extensive career in the Royal Canadian Air Force has included time as deputy commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, as well as commander 1 Canadian Air Division, Canadian North American Aerospace Defence Region, and Combined Forces Air Component commander, where he was responsible for all Canadian Air Force operations.

A discussion with

Charles Bouchard
Lieutenant-General and Commander of NATO military mission in Libya
Royal Canadian Air Force

Moderated by

Barry Pavel
Director, International Security Program
Atlantic Council

DATE:	Tuesday, February 14, 2012
TIME:	2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
LOCATION:	Atlantic Council 1101 15th Street, NW, 11th Floor Washington, DC 20005

RSVP with name and affiliation (acceptances only) to isp@acus.org. Photo credit: The Chronicle Herald.

The Commanders Series is generously sponsored by SAAB North America.

Most French favor U.N. military action in Syria: poll

Jorge Benitez — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:29:53 -0600

From John Irish, Reuters: A narrow majority of French people would back a U.N.-authorized military intervention in Syria, a poll showed on Friday, a higher percentage than those who had supported the NATO mission that helped oust Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. . . .

In a survey of 1,200 French people carried out by pollster IFOP for right-leaning information website Atlantico, 51 percent said they would support U.N.-backed military action in Syria.

Fifty-nine percent of opposition Socialist sympathizers would back the initiative, while 56 percent of supporters of President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP ruling were in favor.

"One of the reasons is the extent of the clashes and the number of victims which continues to climb in Syria and which as a result is pushing (the country) into a civil war," said IFOP's deputy director for opinion polls Jerome Fouquet. (photo: Getty)

What's Georgia Going To Get At The NATO Summit?

Jorge Benitez — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:48:08 -0600

From Joshua Kucera, the EurasiaNet: Georgia's prospects in NATO, after being more or less left for dead in the wake of the 2008 war with Russia, have lately appeared to be improving. NATO has recently changed its rhetoric on Georgia, for the first time calling it an "aspirant" along with several Balkan countries. And U.S. officials have said Georgia is making "significant progress" that should be recognized at the next NATO summit, in Chicago in May.

So what does this mean? Does Georgia have a shot at NATO membership after all? As a story on EurasiaNet's main page today explains, not really: President Obama, after his meeting with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili, used the word "ultimately" to describe Georgia's entrance into NATO, which suggests he doesn't see it happening any time soon. And even if the White House were to again back Georgian NATO membership as strongly as the Bush administration did pre-August 2008, there would still be the matter of the big Western European countries who oppose Georgia's membership. So what to do?

The defense official quoted in the EurasiaNet piece had more thoughts on this (though there wasn't room in that piece). A Membership Action Plan, the holy grail for Georgia, is not a possibility. That subject won't even be discussed at the summit: remember, this will be in May of an election year. "It's about U.S. internal politics, so this summit needs to look good. We don't need a food fight like in '08, between us and the Germans, or the pro-Georgia camp vs. the camp that's not too keen on Georgia. We don't need that. So the whole Georgia issue isn't going to be raised," the official said. . . .

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking to Russian journalists has weighed in on even this slight warming of ties between Tbilisi and Washington . . .

Medvedev made the remarks after one of the participants of the meeting told him with regret, that although after the August, 2008 war Russia managed to secure international “informal arms embargo” against Georgia, situation was now changing with Georgia “restarting to buy arms from around the world”; this participant of the meeting also said that there were speculations about a trade-off – Russia turning a blind eye on Georgia’s rearmament and in exchange securing Tbilisi’s go-ahead for Russia’s WTO accession.

Makes you wonder, though, what's being said behind closed doors. (photo: AP)

Yanukovych to meet with NATO Secretary General at Chicago summit in May

Jorge Benitez — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:20:22 -0600

From Interfax-Ukraine: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is to meet with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at NATO's Chicago summit in May 2012, reads the Ukrainian president's letter of congratulations to Rasmussen on his birthday, which has been published by the president's press service.

"I strongly believe that the constructive partnership between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will develop in future based on trust and mutual understanding. I hope that I will have the opportunity to meet with you in May this year during NATO's summit in Chicago to discuss important cooperation issues," reads the letter. . . .

As reported, earlier the head of the presidential administration, Serhiy Liovochkin, reported that Yanukovych had been invited to attend NATO's summit in Chicago in May 2012. (photo: Getty)

Congressman seeks deeper reduction of US forces in Europe

Jorge Benitez — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:19:32 -0600

From Mike Coffman, Office of Congressman Mike Coffman: The place to begin is by making fundamental changes in the way we have based forces in Europe since the end of World War II.

I appreciate the challenges that the Department of Defense is facing, but I don’t believe they are being bold enough when considering what is necessary. The current proposal to remove two brigades from Europe and being a rotational deployment schedule of one combat brigade is only a step in the right direction. We must reduce our European footprint further and retain only the headquarters and support infrastructure necessary to support our expeditionary. There is no longer a strategic reason to maintain the heavy permanent forces in Germany that are a relic of the Cold War.

The Congressional Budget Office calculated in May of 2004 that removing 95% of forces in Germany alone could save one billion dollars annually. In addition, many of the upfront costs associated with that plan are no longer as severe as we reduce the overall size of our Army, and there are more savings to be had by transferring the bulk of this capacity to the Guard and Reserve components.

Our European allies are facing a fiscal crisis of their own. However, instead of being forced to find the same balance that the United States is trying to achieve, they are able to drastically reduce their national defense infrastructure because they can take for granted that the United States will continue to be the guarantor of their safety. Since 2008 the defense spending among European NATO countries fell 12%, from $314 billion to $275 billion. To continue this trend threatens to eliminate our allies’ capacity to contribute to the alliance. While I value our strategic partnerships and NATO commitments I believe it is time to clearly signal to them that their current path is no longer sustainable.

Currently only 4 out of our 28 NATO allies are spending even 2% of their GDP on defense. The new Strategic Guidance issued by the President and Secretary of Defense makes it clear that we will continue to “maintain NATO Article 5 commitments and ensure interoperability with allied forces by allocating a U.S.-based brigade to the NATO Response Force and by rotating U.S.-based units to Europe for training and exercises.” Nothing in this strategy demands that we maintain any standing force in Europe. . . .

We must continue to pressure our allies to become more sufficient for their national defense so that we can take on the more arduous task of power projection. Removing our standing European army and replacing it with an infrastructure to facilitate expeditionary operations is the first step.

Excerpts from letter by Congressman Mike Coffman (CO-6), member of the House Armed Services Committee, to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. (via Morning Defense)

From Charles Hoskinson, Morning Defense: Some lawmakers also have tied DOD’s request for a new BRAC round to the issue of forces in Europe, saying bases abroad should be closed before those at home. (photo: americaspace.org)

First NATO Military Delegation to visit China

Jorge Benitez — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:05:35 -0600

From NATO: A NATO military delegation, lead by LtGen. Jürgen Bornemann, Director General of the International Military Staff, will visit the People’s Republic of China from 12-16 February 2012.

This is the first time a NATO military delegation is invited by the Chinese authorities to visit their country, and follows on to an earlier visit by a Chinese military delegation to NATO Headquarters in June 2010. The team of NATO experts and military officers will exchange views with their Chinese counterparts on a variety of subjects with a view to enhancing mutual understanding and cooperation.

This visit is in keeping with NATO’s new Strategic Concept, agreed at the Lisbon Summit in November 2010, which aims to further deepen and expand partnerships with countries and organizations who share common security concerns, in the face of emerging security challenges. (photo: NATO)

Pentagon to spend $1.2 billion on three Global Hawk UAVs for NATO

Jorge Benitez — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:27:12 -0600

From Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg: The Pentagon proposes in its new budget to spend $1.2 billion for the first three NATO-version Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) Global Hawk drones and three additional U.S. Navy-version drones, according to an official.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced this month it planned to buy five of the unmanned aircraft, known as the Alliance Ground System, through 2017. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters Feb. 4 without elaboration that “we have protected funding for AGS in our new budget. . . .”

The budget request will help Falls Church, Virginia-based Northrop Grumman after the Air Force announced it’s truncating purchases of its third-generation Block 30 drones. The aircraft have proven too expensive to operate and maintain, Air Force officials told reporters last month.

The Air Force has spent $3.4 billion developing and buying 18 Block 30 drones. It hasn’t disclosed whether it will put on contract an additional three drones for which Congress approved money, according to Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy.

The Air Force program had called for buying 31 Block 30 Global Hawks. The Air Force hasn’t formally announced that it will forgo purchase of the remaining 10.

Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz told reporters Jan. 27 that the service was reviewing whether to retire the initial 18 new aircraft rather than continue flying them. (photo: Unmanned)

Adbusters Wants 50,000 G8/NATO Protesters in Chicago

Jorge Benitez — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:40:36 -0600

From Lisa Balde and Phil Rogers, NBC Chicago: The activist group that helped initiate Occupy Wall Street is rallying troops for a "big bang in Chicago" ahead of the G8/NATO summits this May.

In a statement issued Thursday, Adbusters called on 50,000 people to descend on the city to "set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades" and join Occupy Chicago for a month leading up to the May 15-22 summits expected to draw 7,500 officials.

"With a bit of luck, we’ll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen," the statement read.

"And this time around we’re not going to put up with the kind of police repression that happened … nor will we abide by any phony restrictions the City of Chicago may want to impose on our first amendment rights. We’ll go there with our heads held high and assemble for a month-long people’s summit … we’ll march and chant and sing and shout and exercise our right to tell our elected representatives what we want … the constitution will be our guide.

And when the G8 and NATO meet behind closed doors on May 19, we’ll be ready with our demands: a Robin Hood Tax … a ban on high frequency ‘flash’ trading … a binding climate change accord … a three strikes and you’re out law for corporate criminals … an all out initiative for a nuclear-free Middle East … whatever we decide in our general assemblies and in our global internet brainstorm – we the people will set the agenda for the next few years and demand our leaders carry it out.

And if that doesn't happen? Adbusters promises flash mobs in the streets, the shutdowns of campuses and corporate headquarters, and making "the price of doing business as usual too much to bear."

"We want to get within sight and sound of the G8 and NATO conference," said protest organizer Andy Thayer. “If people can’t hear you, what good is the first amendment?”

It almost goes without saying that whatever happens, it will test the mettle, and restraint, of protesters and police alike.

“Certain people want to be arrested,” says Debra Kirby, the Chicago Police Department’s Chief of International Relations. “When you violate the law, we will accommodate you. You will be arrested.”