Mission report washington, D. C. And chicago, united states
NATO: Towards the Warsaw Summit
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NATO: Towards the Warsaw SummitNATO confronts an array of serious challenges on both its southern and eastern flanks, and Europe and North America should use the Warsaw Summit to demonstrate their unity of purpose and solidarity. This was the central message delivered by John Heffern, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Jim Townsend, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO, as well as several independent analysts to a delegation of NATO parliamentarians visiting Washington and Chicago from 9-13 May. Øyvind Halleraker (Norway) and Menno Knip (Netherlands) led the delegation, which included members of the Sub-Committee on Transatlantic Relations and the Sub-Committee on Transatlantic Economic Relations. Upgrading allied capabilities and strengthening the deterrence posture will be essential to coping with Russia’s efforts to undermine security in Eastern Europe, Heffern told the delegation of national parliamentarians from 14 NATO member states. The US administration greatly values its partnership with a strong EU and expects it to renew sanctions on Russia in light of Russian support for separatist forces in Ukraine. Mr Heffern told the delegation that the level of threat to Allied countries is as great as it ever has been over the last 25 years. Russia is threatening front‑line states, employing a range of active measures including a comprehensive propaganda and disinformation campaign. He suggested that this is a moment demanding very close cooperation and solidarity, and he indicated that this is one reason why the Administration would welcome a strong Britain remaining in a strong European Union, which he described as an important partner for the United States. Both Mr Heffern and Mr Townsend cited the European Reassurance Initiative as an indication of the US commitment to the Alliance in today’s security environment. The Obama Administration has requested a fourfold increase in funding for this effort designed to reinforce peace and security in Europe and to make even more credible the US commitment to the territorial integrity of all its European allies. The Initiative does so by enhancing the US military presence in eastern and central Europe on land, sea and air. Congressman Michael Turner, President of the NATO PA and Head of the US delegation echoed this view in his remarks. He stressed that he also remains committed to the open door policy and is strongly supporting the accession of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia1 while calling for a Membership Action Plan for Georgia. He noted that there is strong support for Ukraine in Congress and that members have pushed to provide weapons to Ukraine to support its efforts to defend the country. In remarks he made at the Library of Congress, Congressman Turner indicated that there are concerns in Congress with the proposed defence budget the Obama administration has tabled. This has slowed down the legislative effort to pass a new one. Congress has, however, authorised funds for the European Reassurance Initiative. The budget as a whole still needs to be approved, and, of course, this is all unfolding in a year of apparent domestic political upheaval. He too argued that Europe needs to redouble efforts to achieve the Wales spending targets and ultimately develop the capacity to defend itself. US government officials and an array of analysts repeatedly told the delegation that US leaders and the American public are dissatisfied with the limited European contributions to collective defence. US officials at the State and Defense Departments recognise that some Allies have increased their defence investments, they also underlined that more needs to be done to enable NATO to cope with burgeoning threats emanating from both the East and from the South. Mr Townsend noted that parliaments have a key role to play in financing national defence budgets, and he said that this support is now critical. Europe needs military capabilities in order to shape the security environment around it and, he suggested, the current environment is threatening to overwhelm Europe given its current level of spending and military capacity. The central purpose of the Warsaw summit should be to reconstitute capabilities that have been lost over the past two decades. The Alliance has rarely faced such a broad array of threats in so many theatres, Mr Townsend told the delegation, and addressing those threats will require capabilities and resources beyond those currently available. Rectifying this situation requires not only greater defence spending, but also a serious society-wide discussion about security. Frank Kramer, a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, told the delegation that Wales should be understood more as a starting point as the adjustments NATO members need to undertake will take years to implement. This is because the nature of threats has altered substantially and adjustments in the defence sector are difficult to implement. NATO, he suggested, will need better intelligence, forward defences in the Baltic states, and new reinforcement capabilities. NATO will also have to adjust to the hybrid threat which is multifarious, complex and non-traditional. Support teams to help build resilience in countries confronting this threat will be in order. National telecommunications and electric grids are vulnerable to cyber-attacks and allies ought to not think of defence of these vital systems as a purely national responsibility. There are clear military reasons for ensuring that these grids remain in operation, in the face of conventional and hybrid attack. Over the course of the week, several speakers also emphasised the need for improved cooperation between NATO and the EU. Magnus Nordenman from the Atlantic Council, for example, submitted that NATO and the EU should agree on a division of labour in which NATO would take on high-end military tasks while the EU would be responsible for dealing with lower order security challenges. NATO and the EU are drawing from the same resource pool, he said, and it is essential that consultation between these two organisations is fundamentally deepened to ensure a sensible division of labour. Limited defence resources have made the problem all the more apparent. Mr Nordenman suggested that the maritime dimension of the NATO’s security posture is often under-appreciated. The last fifteen years, the Alliance has been more focused on ground‑centric peace forces, but this is now set to change. There is growing friction on the high seas where Russian aircraft have flown provocatively over Western naval forces. The high seas are now a zone of contest from the Arctic to the Black Sea and it is important that NATO has the proper forces and doctrine to cope with these serious challenges. He suggested that the development of regional maritime frameworks could be helpful in this regard and would represent a new way to work with key partner countries sharing NATO concerns. These frameworks are very useful for training exercises, joint patrols and search and rescue. Mr Nordenman indicated that capabilities development consortia would also be helpful in the maritime field and would generate greater budgetary efficiencies. Ivo Daalder, the President of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former US Ambassador to NATO, echoed these concerns in a presentation he gave to the delegation in Chicago. NATO must come to an agreement on how to deal with Russia, and how to cope with critical challenges in the Middle East, and do so while ensuring that Allied political consensus is not shattered due to tensions between those most focused on Russia and those preoccupied with events to the south. Mr Daalder also expressed deep concerns that there is a perception that NATO is somehow powerless to do anything to improve the security outlook in the MENA region. This perception, in itself, is weakening allied solidarity. He suggested that adopting a more robust approach to challenges in the MENA region should be a key theme at the Warsaw Summit. He also urged parliamentarians to discuss these and other security issues actively with their constituents to raise public awareness and understanding of these critical matters. Mr Daalder suggested that NATO has to play a central role in coping with the revival of a revanchist Russia, in part, by ensuring a trip‑wire in the East. He also pointed out that NATO’s unilateral commitment not to station permanent forces in parts of Eastern Europe may now be obsolete given the nature of the Russian threat. The priority now must be deterrence and reassurance. The decision to forward deploy equipment for a combat division represents a good first step. NATO also must address the challenge of an increasingly chaotic Middle East and divisions within the Western family of nations. These divisions among NATO countries are the most serious challenge the Alliance faces. Effective deterrence requires unity and a willingness to establish a genuine presence in those regions must vulnerable to Russian suasion. The Warsaw Summit will do this in the eastern regions of the Alliance, but Mr Daalder is also concerned about the south where there appears to be less unity of purpose. This, he said, will be the real challenge for government heads gathered in Warsaw. Daalder noted that NATO is about reassurance and deterrence, and allied countries must take measures to ensure that Allied deterrence capacity is reinforced. Along these lines he urged parliamentarians to engage in a frank discussion with their constituents about the nature of the threat and the need to appropriate resources to cope with it. He also suggested that the security situation is now so grave that it is no longer tenable for the EU and NATO not to cooperate comprehensively. He suggested that it was absurd that national ambassadors to the EU and NATO in Brussels barely communicate with each other and essentially live in different worlds, while Foreign Affairs Ministers have different talking points for EU-related audiences and NATO audiences. A proper division of labour needs to be established between the two organisations and this must be done in full recognition that having the United States engaged will endow any operation with greater capabilities and credibility. 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