S. HRG. 110–506 NATO: ENLARGEMENT AND EFFECTIVENESS HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION MARCH 11, 2008 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 44–537 PDF WASHINGTON : 2008 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 19:57 Dec 04, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 NATO sforel1 PsN: sforel1 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware, Chairman CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut RICHARD G. LUGAR, Indiana JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts CHUCK HAGEL, Nebraska RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota BARBARA BOXER, California BOB CORKER, Tennessee BILL NELSON, Florida GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio BARACK OBAMA, Illinois LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey JIM DEMINT, South Carolina BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania DAVID VITTER, Louisiana JIM WEBB, Virginia JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming ANTONY J. BLINKEN, Staff Director KENNETH A. MYERS, JR., Republican Staff Director (II) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 19:57 Dec 04, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 NATO sforel1 PsN: sforel1 CONTENTS Page Asmus, Ronald D., executive director, Transatlantic Center, German Marshall Fund, Brussels, Belgium ..................................................................................... 42 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 45 Biden, Hon. Joseph R., Jr., U.S. Senator from Delaware, opening statement ... 1 Craddock, GEN John, U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Com- mander, Europe, NATO Headquarters, Mons, Belgium ................................... 13 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 15 Fried, Hon. Daniel, Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Department of State, Washington, DC .................................................................................... 5 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 8 Gordon, Dr. Philip H., senior fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Brookings Institu- tion, Washington, DC ........................................................................................... 50 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 53 Jackson, Bruce, president, Project on Transitional Democracies, Washington, DC .......................................................................................................................... 59 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 61 Lugar, Hon. Richard G., U.S. Senator from Indiana, opening statement ........... 3 Townsend, James J., Jr., director, International Security Program, Atlantic Council, Washington, DC .................................................................................... 67 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 70 ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD DeMint, Jim, U.S. Senator from South Carolina, prepared statement ............... 86 Obama, Barack, U.S. Senator from Illinois, prepared statement ........................ 85 (III) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 19:57 Dec 04, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 NATO sforel1 PsN: sforel1 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 19:57 Dec 04, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 NATO sforel1 PsN: sforel1 NATO: ENLARGEMENT AND EFFECTIVENESS TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2008 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:40 p.m., in room SD–419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Senators Biden, Dodd, Menendez, Casey, Lugar, Hagel, Voinovich, and Isakson. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., U.S. SENATOR FROM DELAWARE The CHAIRMAN. The hearing will come to order. Mr. Assistant Secretary, welcome back. It’s been only about a couple of days since you’ve been here. It’s good to have you back. And, General Craddock, welcome. And thank you both for being here today. Next month, the 26 Member States of the NATO Alliance will gather in Bucharest, Romania. And central to the discussions will be the questions of Ukraine and Georgia, bringing them closer to the Alliance, and Croatia, Albania, and FYROM—or Macedonia, as our Government refers to it—into the Alliance. The other major issues that will be front and center is the effectiveness of NATO in its first out-of-area military commitment in the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Summits have a tendency to force events and a time for actual decisions on hard issues, so it’s no surprise that, in the runup to this summit, disagreements among allies sometimes get the spot- light. Even so, I am deeply concerned that, on the eve of this sum- mit, the Alliance is especially fractured and incoherent. And, quite frankly, Senator Lugar and I have been here a long time. I don’t know how many conferences I’ve attended about whether NATO will survive? I know we always have these discussions, but this is a particularly difficult moment. First, there appears to be a total lack of clarity on how to re- spond to the applications of Ukraine and Georgia for Membership Action Plans, or MAP. I believe—speaking for myself only, that we should encourage Ukraine and Georgia by granting their requests for MAP. Both countries have made substantial progress toward consolidating gains of the Orange and Rose Revolutions, and have made substantive contributions to NATO operations. A Member- ship Action Plan, as you both know better than anyone, is not an irrevocable step for either the applicant state or for the Alliance. (1) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 19:57 Dec 04, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 NATO sforel1 PsN: sforel1 2 The decision on an invitation to join the Alliance can take as long as NATO wants or the applicant state requires. Second, there is no apparent consensus on the three countries who are candidates for actual membership. During the 1990s, NATO became a force for promotion of a Europe whole and free in ways that its founders, I don’t think, ever fully imagined. The pros- pect of membership encouraged Europe’s newly liberated countries to settle longstanding disputes, to deep-root democracy and human rights, and, of course, to build competent militaries. I am proud, along with Senator Lugar and my deceased colleague Senator Roth and others, to have played a part in helping the initial enlargement of NATO after the wall came down. It remains my conviction that we should extend an offer of NATO membership to any country that applies and meets the criteria. As a strategic matter, the admission of Croatia and Albania and Macedonia to NATO would bring the Balkans closer to the Euro- pean future its people deserve, and it would strengthen, in my view, regional security. But, that doesn’t mean these three can- didates, in my view, must enter as a block. Each country should be judged against the established criteria and on its own merits. Of course, NATO’s current members must still agree on the deci- sion to invite new ones, period. I’ve strongly urged Greece and FYROM, or Macedonia, to find a reasonable compromise to the name dispute that stands as a bar to Macedonia’s membership. If they’re unable to do so in time for the summit, that failure should not, in my view, penalize the pros- pects of Croatia or Albania. I expect our witnesses to address the readiness of these three countries to join NATO, and our second panel includes two prominent experts who disagree on whether these countries are ready. And it’s important, I think, to hear this debate here in the Foreign Relations Committee. And finally, the other critical issue in this summit is Afghani- stan—the forgotten war, in my view. I was there, along with Sen- ator Lugar and Senator Kerry, just a few weeks ago. Each of us has spoken to our deep concern that, while Afghanistan remains winnable, we are not winning. In my view, we need a new strategy for success and a new NATO commitment, in terms of the indi- vidual countries and their rules of engagement. This should not be America’s fight, alone. Our allies joined this war from the very start. This was not a war of choice; this was a war of necessity. And they have as much at stake as we do, I’d respectfully suggest. Since 9/11, Europe has been repeatedly targeted for terror, and virtually every attack can be traced back to the Afghan-Pakistan border regions. The heroin Afghanistan produces winds up in the streets of Madrid and Berlin, not in New York. In fact, since 2001 far more Brits have lost their lives to Afghan drugs than to Taliban arms. Many of our NATO allies thought they were signing up for a peacekeeping mission, not a counterinsurgency operation. And many are fighting like it is a peacekeeping operation: Not fighting. Some are fighting with incredible bravery, particularly in the south. But, the so-called national caveats are making a mockery, in my view, of NATO and the notion of