Transatlantic Homeland Defense

Abstract

Homeland defense that is, the military's role in preventing and defending against terrorist attacks on the territory of Alliance members is an increasingly important imperative for the United States, Canada and Europe. NATO has the opportunity to articulate a strategic direction and planning process for homeland defense to ensure that relevant Alliance activities and capabilities are adapted and integrated to deal with these new threats. NATO's activities in many areas for example, its protection of Mediterranean sealanes against weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and terrorists provide multiple elements that can be united to form a homeland defense initiative at Riga. Such an initiative would be intended to complement, not detract from, national and European Union (EU) capabilities and institutions that bear the major responsibility for ensuring homeland security. This initiative would offer NATO both a 21st-century approach to Article 5 and new meaning and credibility in the eyes of NATO publics who are concerned about threats to their homelands.1 This report proposes that enhanced transatlantic homeland defense be a major initiative for adoption at the 2006 Riga Summit and completion at the 2008 summit. Accompanying this initiative would be parallel proposals on strengthening partnerships with nonmembers and further improving NATO's military forces and capabilities for new-era missions. The initiative would include four categories of homeland defense, none of which would address expeditionary, counterterrorism, natural disaster, and humanitarian missions outside the NATO area. In some cases, capabilities created for homeland defense purposes could be used within and outside the NATO area for such civil-military missions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA448053

Entities

People

  • Anne M. Moisan
  • Hans Binnendijk
  • Jeffrey Simon
  • Kimberley L. Thachuk
  • Leo G. Michel
  • Neyla Amas
  • Richard L. Kugler
  • Stephen J. Flanagan
  • Stuart E. Johnson

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Airborne Warning And Control System
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Civil Defense
  • Control Systems
  • Counterterrorism
  • Defense Systems
  • Disasters
  • European Union
  • Homeland Defense
  • Homeland Security
  • International Law
  • International Relations
  • Military Operations
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • United States Northern Command
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
  • International Relations and European Studies
  • Strategic Security Studies