This much is certain: The world does not much look like it did 60 years ago.
In 1949 the geopolitical landscape was defined by clear ideological and geographic boundaries. When representatives from the United States and a group of European nations agreed that year to form a military alliance, their intentions were well understood: They wanted to ensure their mutual solidarity against the threat of Soviet communism that had already occupied half of the European continent. Indeed, NATO began not with a theory or a crisis, but with a recognition of unmistakable common interest.
Of course, the communist threat, together with the Iron Curtain that once ran through Europe, has since faded into history. But NATO remains - burnished by its victory, yet also discomfited by the disappearance of the world into which it was born.
NATO - victorious but without a mission ?
This is not to say that the post-Cold War NATO has experienced a lack of activity. On the contrary, NATO has probably been more active during the past twenty years, than during the preceding four decades. It has expanded into the former territory of the Warsaw Pact and has engaged in conflicts in the Balkans and Afghanistan; it has developed deeper relationships both with the institutions of the European Union as well as with those of Russia.
The alliance, though, has yet to decide whether it requires a central organising mission, or whether it intends to survive as a body for ad hoc political and military operations. This is a debate that has arisen repeatedly over the last twenty years – during last summer’s hostilities between Georgia and Russia, for example – but one that has yet to be resolved.
What future for the world’s oldest military alliance ?
The Heinrich Böll Foundation has decided to mark NATO’s 60th anniversary with a conference that will address the organisation’s present tasks and future shape. On March 6 and 7, 2009, policy makers, journalists, and political actors from Europe, America, and beyond will meet in Berlin to exchange their views on the world’s oldest military alliance.
In preparation, over the course of the next few weeks, this dossier will introduce the conference’s central themes. We will feature perspectives from member countries, essays concerning prospective member states and former NATO antagonists, as well as those nations where NATO operations are currently under way. Further contributions will focus on the major strategic and security challenges the military alliance will need to address in the coming decades - from climate change, to state building, to nuclear proliferation.
Is there a future for NATO? And, should the answer be in the affirmative, what might it look like? The question whether NATO is an outdated organisation or an indispensable alliance is a moot point. We hope that our conference and this dossier will help foster an enlightened debate on these issues.
- Deutschlandfunk and Atlantic Times are media partners for the conference NATO in a changing world – Outdated Organisation or Indispensable Alliance?, March 6/7, 2009