NATO chief says alliance should serve as global security forum

NATO chief proposes global security forum

BRUSSELS — NATO should serve as a global security forum where members could consult with partner nations on threats to international stability, the alliance’s chief said on Thursday, adding this might require a “cultural revolution” within NATO.

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said challenges such as international terrorism, cyber attacks, nuclear proliferation, piracy and climate change can only be tackled if NATO’s 28 nations work together with its partners from around the world.

In the past, some NATO governments have criticized proposals to expand the alliance’s mission, saying that could turn NATO into a “global policeman” and that members should focus on defending each other, not the rest of the world.

NATO currently has about 40 partner nations, including Australia, India, Japan, Pakistan and Russia. It has several types of partnerships, including those with European non-NATO countries, with nations of the Mediterranean basin and with Persian Gulf states.

NATO’s treaty requires the alliance to militarily defend members nations, but not partner ones. Still, partner states regularly contribute to NATO operations such as those in Afghanistan, and the naval missions off Somalia and in the Mediterranean Sea,

In a video blog released Thursday, Fogh Rasmussen said setting up a new global security forum was not “a matter of choice, it is a matter of necessity.”

“NATO must actively be engaged where threats arise,” he said. “In today’s globalized world we must realize that territorial defense begins beyond our borders and we need to act in close cooperation with other players and partners on the international scene.”

Fogh Rasmussen’s statement comes as the alliance is striving to redefine its mission for the 21th century. A group of experts, led by former U.S. State Secretary Madeleine Albright, is working to update NATO’s old strategic concept, formulated in 1999.

The new concept should be formally adopted at the alliance’s next summit in November in Lisbon, Portugal.

Drafting the document is likely to spark rifts among the allies, some of whom want NATO to stick to its core mission of defending alliance members, while others — including the United States and Britain — advocate a broader mandate. This would include missions outside NATO’s traditional area of operations, such as the anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Africa.

“If we want to provide security to the nearly 1 billion people in our member states, we must adapt to the radically different circumstances,” Fogh Rasmussen said. “It might require a cultural revolution in our thinking.”

It was not immediately clear how member states would react, at a time when the alliance is engaged in its first out-of-theater war in Afghanistan.

NATO nations also had a major falling out over the Iraq war, with several — including France, Germany and Belgium — opposing it and blocking alliance participation.