The UN and NATO: Forward from the Joint Declaration
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NATO Defense College 17 Collège de Défense de l’OTAN The UN and NATO: Forward from the Joint Declaration Foreword by General Stéphane Abrial Supreme Allied Commander Transformation NDC FORUM PAPER NDC FORUM PAPER Edited by Brooke A. Smith-Windsor Rome, �May 2011 NATO DEFENSE COLLEGE COLLÈGE DE DÉFENSE DE L’OTAN Research Division Division Recherche The UN and NATO: Forward from the Joint Declaration Foreword by General Stéphane Abrial Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Edited by Brooke A. Smith-Windsor Rome, May 2011 NATO DEFENSE COLLEGE NATO Defense College Cataloguing-in-Publication-Data: “THE UN AND NATO: FORWARD FROM THE JOINT DECLARATION” Edited by Brooke A.Smith-Windsor (NATO Defense College “NDC Forum Papers Series”) Copy-editing: Maria Di Martino ISBN: 978-88-96898-03-1 The views expressed in NDC Forum Papers are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the NATO Defense College or the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Extracts of this NDC Forum Paper for academic purposes may be quoted or reprinted without special permission, provided that a standard source credit line is included. To copy, to republish or to post on the world wide web, requires the permission from the NATO Defense College. © NDC 2011 all rights reserved Copies of this NDC Forum Paper may be obtained directly from the NATO Defense College, Research Division Via Giorgio Pelosi, 1 - 00143 Rome, Italy Fax +39-06-50 52 57 97 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.ndc.nato.int Printed and bound by Deltamedia artigrafiche srl Via Macedonia 10, 00183 Rome, Italy Tel +39 06 700 2 444 - Fax +39 06 97 74 81 55 Table of contents Foreword .......................................................................................................4 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................8 List of Abbreviations.....................................................................................9 Introduction Invigorating UN-NATO Strategic Relations ...........................................11 Wolf-Dieter Loeser Chapter One Misery Makes for Strange Bedfellows: The Future of the UN-NATO Strategic Partnership................................................................................15 Brooke A. Smith-Windsor Chapter Two Dispelling Misperceptions for a Renewed Synergy between the United Nations and the Atlantic Alliance ............................................................53 Alexis Vahlas Chapter Three NATO and the UN in Afghanistan: Partners or Competitors? .............76 Michael F. Harsch Appendix 1 – Extracts of the UN Charter (1945) ...................................112 Appendix 2 –Washington Treaty (1949) ..................................................121 4 Foreword This volume results from a high-level research symposium that was organized on 21 October 2010 by the NATO Defense College, New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, and the Turkish delegation to the United Nations (UN). The event was an opportunity for policymakers and researchers to bring together their insights on the achievements and the prospects of UN-NATO cooperation, more than two years after the signing of a Joint Declaration by the Secretaries- General of the UN and NATO on 23 September 2008. The main conclusion from the proceedings of the symposium was that the UN and NATO are necessary partners in tackling today’s and tomorrow’s security challenges and that this is widely recognized by both organizations, despite the various challenges that the UN- NATO cooperation faces. The operational interaction between the UN and NATO is nothing new. Among many examples, it has been successfully practiced in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, and more recently off the coast of Somalia and in Pakistan. As a rule, NATO places itself within a broader framework for conflict resolution and crisis management, stemming directly from the UN in its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. The most recent example of this is obviously NATO’s operation in Libya, which is conducted on the basis of UN Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973. However, there still is a long way to go for the UN-NATO partnership to reach its full potential. The signing of the 2008 Declaration was only a step, albeit an important one, in the right direction. Although the political will exists at the highest level in both organizations, UN- NATO day-to-day cooperation sometimes remains a sensitive matter. 5 During the research symposium, there was some debate as to whether this stemmed from erroneous reciprocal perceptions or was grounded in solid political realities that could not be changed simply by working on perceptions. My own sense is that there is still some reluctance about an active partnership with NATO among some UN members. Conversely, there is also room for improvement in NATO’s awareness of the UN’s modes of operation, constraints and culture. Be that as it may, I strongly believe that in today’s world, a solid, effective UN-NATO partnership is not a matter of choice – it is a necessity for the international community’s ability to prevent conflict, manage current and future crises and tackle post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction. The importance of such a partnership is fully recognized by the Alliance’s new Strategic Concept, adopted at the Lisbon Summit in November 2010, which states that “cooperation between NATO and the United Nations continues to make a substantial contribution to security in operations around the world” and pledges that the Alliance will “deepen political dialogue and practical cooperation with the UN”. The Strategic Concept also recognizes that the prevention and resolution of future security challenges will require the Alliance to “engage actively with other international actors before, during and after crises to encourage collaborative analysis, planning and conduct of activities on the ground, in order to maximise coherence and effectiveness of the overall international effort”. Indeed, today’s and tomorrow’s challenges, be they in Afghanistan, in Libya, in our counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia, or in our response to possible cyber-attacks, will require as coordinated an approach as possible between different organizations. Cognizant that, today as well as tomorrow, there is no viable alternative to effective civil-military cooperation, NATO is therefore increasingly committed to contributing to a “comprehensive approach” to effective crisis management, in the 6 broadest sense of this expression. In this regard, the UN’s long experience in peacekeeping and peace-building is of tremendous interest to the Alliance. For decades, the UN has brought to bear military and civilian capabilities in support of stabilization and reconstruction efforts in a wide range of theatres. I am convinced that the Alliance has much to learn from the UN in this regard. From a military point of view, the UN-NATO dialogue should be geared towards allowing both organizations to interact seamlessly when engaged concurrently in a theatre. It is obvious that this cannot be achieved unless the staffs from both organizations know each other well and are used to interacting before a crisis strikes. Such interaction is an indispensable complement to high-level exchanges between leaders. Valuable steps recently have been taken in this regard, and a prime example is the research symposium that resulted in the present volume. Allied Command Transformation has been contributing to this goal by offering to the UN a wide array of courses and training opportunities that allow UN and NATO personnel to exchange experiences and to find out about each other’s procedures in the pre- deployment phase, affording a more in-depth perspective on topics such as the comprehensive approach or the implementation of a gender perspective in crisis management. This is being done through the network of training facilities and NATO-accredited Centres of Excellence, and in cooperation with other NATO entities such as the NATO School in Oberammergau and the NATO Defense College (NDC). In addition, Allied Command Transformation has presented concrete proposals for further UN-NATO cooperation in areas such 7 as planning, assessments and logistical and medical support. Its favourable geographic location, as the only NATO strategic command headquartered on the same side of the Atlantic as the UN, offers promising perspectives for further interaction. The present volume offers both a historic view of the UN- NATO partnership and an analysis of current and future challenges and opportunities. It is my hope that it will help advance the UN- NATO partnership by offering insights and perspectives that will provide stakeholders in both organizations with inspiration to continue charting the way forward. General Stéphane Abrial Supreme Allied Commander Transformation 8 Acknowledgements The idea for this volume emanated from a NATO Defense College (NDC) international research symposium entitled “The UN and NATO: Forward from the Joint Declaration”, convened in New York City on 21 October 2010. Conceived as an opportunity to achieve deeper understanding of problems and prospects in the UN- NATO strategic relationship, the symposium and this Forum Paper would not have been possible without the assistance and cooperation of many people. The NDC would like to acknowledge the support of the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) of New York University