OPINION: Leo Michel on NATO After the Lisbon Summit
"Now Comes the Hard Part: NATO After the Lisbon Summit"
by Leo Michel
Atlantic Perspectief (Netherlands Atlantic Association)
When NATO heads of state and government agreet at their April 2009 Strabourg-Kehl summit to launch preparation of a new Strategic Concept, few commentators appreciated the risky nature of the exercise.
On the one hand, NATO was busier than ever, implementing decisions agreed by consensus among all 28 members. These included, for example: conducting operations ranging from couterinsurgency in Afghanistan to peacekeeping in Kosovo to anti-piracy of the coast of Somalia.....
But now comes the hard part: moving from the Strategic Concept's affirmations of NATO's core tasks and principles (defence and deterrence, security through crisis management, and promoting international security through cooperation) to implementing concrete actions to meet current challenges and prepare for the future, hard to predict contingencies. Several areas need special attention.
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