New Challenges for the German Security Policy - IFSH

NATO Headquarters, Brussels: „Evolution of NATO into the 21 st
Century”
Dr. Knut Kirste, German Info and Liaison Office, Public Policy Division.
April 27, 2006
The visit to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium
took place on the 27 th April 2006. First theme offered for discussion was the transformation of the
organisation beginning from the end of the Cold War till present time. Dr. Kirste divided his
presentation into three parts: evolution, enlargement and the agenda of the NATO meeting in Sofia,
Bulgaria.
The first part touched upon the evolution of the Alliance. The changes within the organisation were
needed to adopt NATO to the new challenges of the freedom and security in the world. From the
military defense organisation it now perceives itself as a collective security alliance; from a
Eurocentric organization it became global, engaging in the field of cooperation, conflict prevention,
stabilization and peace building. These all required changes in the strategy, technological
improvements, intensive training of the soldiers not only in the spheres of military techniques, but
also in peace building and peacekeeping.
After the enlargement of the institution including 10 more member-states with 52 million people,
the new frontiers were confronted with unstable neighborhood and former enemies. Ensuring the
security in the Atlantic region, NATO established the Partnership for
Peace Program with 20 countries from the Mediterranean and Eurasia.
The possibility to discuss the issues of common interest in the Council
and carry out joint military and peacekeeping operations raise the
awareness among partnership states about the NATO as an
organisation and established an environment of mutual trust and
cooperation. According to the speaker, such improvements untied
NATO’s hands. It is now geographically unrestricted. Action can
rather be taken wherever and whenever needed. At the same time,
NATO’s global participation on territories like Afghanistan, and
cooperation with countries like Australia, both lying far beyond the
North-Atlantic region, produce political disputes on how far the
organisation will enlarge, while risking to lose its natural roots as the
North-Atlantic Alliance.
All these issues were intensively discussed by the 26 NATO Foreign Ministers on the meeting in
Sofia, Bulgaria on 27 th April 2006. The core topic on agenda, as Dr. Kirste pointed out, concerned
the strengthening of the NATO relations with non-member states, such as Japan, South Korea, New
Zealand and Australia. Also the NATO’s Training Initiative together with capacity-building in the
frames of enlargement to Africa and Middle East were as well the focus of vigorous debate.
Teodora Vrancean, Nodira Inoyatova, Frank Reininghaus
NATO Headquarters, Brussels: Relationships between NATO and the
Broader Middle East
Mr. Alberto Bin, NATO Political Affairs Division & Multilateral & Regional Affairs Section
Mr. Alberto Bin gave a short introduction into the relationship between NATO and the Broader
Middle East, before answering students´ questions.
Starting in 1994, the NATO regarded the Southern Mediterranean Rim as an area of potential
instability; therefore two instruments were introduced to countries in that area, the Mediterranean
Dialogue (MD) and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI). These two were aiming at two
separate groups of countries, and both contained a different approach from the EU approach
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