NATO's 2010 Strategic Concept Challenge: Specificity Versus Flexibility
Abstract
In April 2009, at the NATO Summit held at Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany, NATOs Heads of State and Government tasked the Secretary General to develop a new Strategic Concept. Expected to be complete and submitted by the next summit planned for late 2010 in Lisbon, Portugal, it will be the second post-Cold War and first post-9/11 Strategic Concept. Struggling with the meaning of collective defense and deterrence in today's environment and how to confront a broader spectrum of threats, NATO is attempting to codify its role in global civil and military crisis management.1 The aim of this paper is to provide a short background on the evolution of the Strategic Concept in respect to the changing political and military threats to the NATO Alliance. Additionally it will address why the next document needs to return to the core of the alliance and resist the trend of growing specificity in response to the changing security environment. And finally, it will argue the futility of having a strategic document that dictates member military force structure. Faced with an ever-expanding list of perceived threats, expeditionary military requirements and internal strife, NATO is in the midst of an identity crisis and considered by some as heading towards irrelevancy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- AD1019307
Entities
People
- Craig A. Mockler
Organizations
- Air Command and Staff College