and for a security agreement with Afghanistan
by Nigel Chamberlain, NATO Watch
NATO's new Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACUR) - appointed in March, General Breedlove, told Reuters that one of his immediate goals was to uphold gains made by NATO over the last decade through joint training and deployment:
Right now we are at the height of our ability to operate together, our cohesiveness is high, our tactics, techniques and procedures are as good as they have ever been. My concern is that we do not lose the edge... clearly we need the budget to do that, so we are emphasising with our NATO partners that defence spending is important.
European countries have reduced defence spending since the 2008 financial crisis and the United States has reduced its military deployments in Europe while boosting training of European partners, primarily at the huge US training base in Grafenwoehr in southern Germany.
'Resolute Support', NATO's post-2014 mission for Afghanistan, is still very much in the planning stage with Member States and Partner Nations waiting for the United States to announce its own commitment before making their own specific pledges. Breedlove said: "Clearly it would be nice to have absolute definition right now, but it is not critical ... we have some time in order to properly draw down."
SACUR named failing states, restive populations, and "ungoverned spaces" as the key issues facing the world. He said:
We have to be prepared for everything from counter-insurgency all the way to the more conventional defensive or offensive fights that NATO's history was more centred on. It is really important that we stay connected in our efforts and investments so we .. have the full range to offer whether it is to a coalition-led, United Nations-led, European Union-led or NATO-led operation.
Apparently, he also told the Associated Press that it is “absolutely critical” to have a US-Afghanistan bilateral security agreement (BSA) “signed as soon as possible”as a basis to plan 'Resolute Support' but that the October dateline mentioned this week by General Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “would be a great date".
Former SACUR, Admiral Stavridis has encouraged the US military not only to be more adaptive and less insular, but also to re-examine its role in international conflict resolution in places like Latin America and Afghanistan. He believes the US can help partners to end conflict quickly, reconstruct and then develop through the application of 'smart power': the effective combination of soft power (diplomacy and development) and hard power (military might).
In an interview with retired Navy Officer Oliver Barrett, Stavridis reiterated his belief that 21st century security can't be created by building walls but by building bridges via international and multi-national approaches, inter-agency approaches built upon the 'three Ds'– defence, diplomacy and development and public-private cooperation. Strategic communications, effectively used, are key to the use of 'Smart Power'. Post-2014 , he envisages a peace dialogue and a further application of 'Smart Power' to increase the chances of a more stable and prosperous Afghanistan. Responding to a question about counter-terrorism, Stavrides said:
In any insurgency there will be people who are irreconcilable and who pose a clear and present threat to the U.S. and our allies. Those people have to be dealt with using hard power, but I think that the broader effort in counter-terrorism needs to be addressed with smart power approaches in order to adequately deal with grievances like unemployment, lack of health care and entrenched hatreds. You can't kill your way to success in a counter insurgency effort. You have to protect the people, get the civil military balance right, train the locals, and practice effective strategic communications.