NATO’s hidden danger in Afghanistan
The risks of the bloody and uncertain Afghanistan mission for the NATO alliance have been well advertised. A perceived defeat could shatter NATO unity and send it scuttling back to its original—and much more limited—mission as a territorial defense organization. (A number of NATO members, particularly in Eastern Europe, already wish it would focus less ...
The risks of the bloody and uncertain Afghanistan mission for the NATO alliance have been well advertised. A perceived defeat could shatter NATO unity and send it scuttling back to its original—and much more limited—mission as a territorial defense organization. (A number of NATO members, particularly in Eastern Europe, already wish it would focus less on Kandahar and more on Kaliningrad. )
The risks of the bloody and uncertain Afghanistan mission for the NATO alliance have been well advertised. A perceived defeat could shatter NATO unity and send it scuttling back to its original—and much more limited—mission as a territorial defense organization. (A number of NATO members, particularly in Eastern Europe, already wish it would focus less on Kandahar and more on Kaliningrad. )
I spoke recently to a senior European diplomat with long NATO experience who mentioned another looming danger: the growing technology gap between the United States and its NATO partners. This has been a longstanding concern; when NATO launched air operations against Serbia in 1999, U.S. forces often found it difficult to coordinate with allied forces using outdated technology. Now, this official argues, budget-conscious Europeans are plundering their already slim military modernization budgets in order to pay for day-to-day operations in Afghanistan. It would be ironic if the alliance’s largest and most complex operation made it less likely the alliance could fight together in the future.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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