Because of Russia, NATO’s core mission—collective defense—is a focal point once again.
All for One in NATO By Marc V. Schanz, Senior Editor
Royal Netherlands Army soldiers and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter participate in Noble Jump, a NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force exercise, in June.
28 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2015 to a meeting in Brussels of the alliance’s Defense Ministers. Beyond reassuring allies worried about Russian intentions, NATO is struggling to deal with the violence and turmoil of the Middle East and North Africa that directly affects members such as France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Turkey, all of them awash in refugees. From the east to the south, NATO must adapt to a “fundamentally changed” ATO is reassessing and enable future operations on the eastern security environment, Stoltenberg said. transforming its military front. The Crimea crisis also invigorated In March remarks at a NATO confer- capabilities and organiza- efforts to field better alliance-owned ence in Washington, D.C., Stoltenberg tion to better carry out its capabilities—intelligence, surveillance, pointed out that “for the first time in central mission: collective and reconnaissance tools in particular— NATO’s history” it must embrace and defense.N to provide better “strategic warning” fortify its commitment to collective The alliance is engaged in a robust and ISR collection to monitor threats, defense in light of Russia’s aggression update of its training and exercises and especially preparations for war. and simultaneously reform its ability re-tooling what members contribute to to quickly assess and respond to global collective operations. The overhaul is RE I I A O crises wherever they emerge. needed to respond to 21st century threats, NATO officials say collective de- “We have to do both at the same time,” such as the “hybrid warfare” launched fense—the driving provision of the 1949 he said. By doing so, NATO nations and by Russia in its early 2014 invasion of treaty creating the organization—has re- their militaries will better confront the Ukraine. ally not been rethought since the alliance challenges of hybrid war, which he called Since Russia’s seizure of Crimea, bloomed to 28 members in the post-Cold a “dark reflection” of the alliance’s ap- NATO has been busy with a series of ini- War era. Current reforms have implica- proach to collective security. The term tiatives meant to reassure its easternmost tions far beyond today’s disagreement refers to using military and nonmilitary members. These include creating and with Moscow over a nation, Ukraine, force to destabilize countries, using reinforcing new rapid-reaction military that is not a NATO member. proxy forces, propaganda, special opera- capabilities, streamlining the alliance’s “We are not in a Cold War situation, tions, and intimidation to lay a “thick fog ponderous political-military decision- but we are not in a strategic partnership of confusion” over aggressive military making process, and forming new joint with Russia, either,” Secretary General actions. This approach is nothing less headquarters and logistics nodes to Jens Stoltenberg said in June, just prior than “a test of our resolve to resist and