Global Security: in Search of a New Vision - Center for Strategic ...

Welcoming Dinner Debate
General George Joulwan 1
Moderator
INTRO DUC TORY REMARKS: GEN ERAL GEORGE JOULWAN
These work shops have taken on a spe cial mean ing not only for Europe but indeed for the world.
Frank, can did dis cus sions have been the order of the day, and, judg ing from our ear lier expe ri -
ences, this dis cus sion will engen der the same can dor. As some one who has been through 14 of
these con fer ences, start ing when I was the Supreme Allied Com mander, back in 1994, I would like to
com mend the work shop chair man, Roger Weissinger-Baylon, and his team, for again assem bling an
excel lent set of speak ers and an excit ing agenda set against the back ground of Rome.
I think all of you will agree that this has been an excel lent forum in which to dis cuss freely and can didly
the issues con front ing the post-Cold War world that we live in. May I also give to our Ital ian friends a spe -
cial salute for spon sor ing this work shop in the Eter nal City. Rome has wit nessed great tri umphs, great
glory, and also occu pa tion dur ing the nearly three mil len nia of its his tory. The city has con trib uted much
to our cul ture, our lan guage, law, sci ence, and pol i tics, and of course, as wit nessed here, to wine and food.
On a per sonal note, it was to Rome in 1996 that I came to dis cuss the first two months of the Bosnian
oper a tion with mem bers of NATO and the Con tact Group. To the sur prise of many, NATO was able to
coor di nate a force of 37 nations, sep a rate three vicious, war ring fac tions, trans fer land from one entity to
the other, demo bi lize the war ring fac tions, and set the con di tions for an elec tion in Sep tem ber of 1996,
all in the first six months and with out los ing a sin gle life to hos tile fire. That has con tin ued for over 10
years. So, if you do it right, if you have the polit i cal will, if you have the plan ning, if you estab lish con di -
tions for suc cess, you can achieve the right results and I ask you to look at all of that in Afghanistan today.
It was also to Rome, if I may give you one more exam ple, that I was sum moned to meet with Pope
John Paul in 1996 for what I thought would be a brief photo oppor tu nity, but which turned into a sub -
stan tive 45-min ute dis cus sion about Bosnia. It was like going to con fes sion with the pope. He was well
pre pared and wanted to know how NATO accom plished this dif fi cult mis sion while oth ers failed. This
story relates to our dis cus sions now because I dis cussed with the pon tiff the impor tance of polit i cal will
in NATO.
At that time, 16 dem o cratic nations act ing as one cre ated the con di tions for suc cess: clar ity of mis sion,
unity of com mand, robust rules of engage ment, timely polit i cal deci sions, and a U.N. res o lu tion con don -
ing NATO inter ven tion. We also dis cussed the impor tance of Rus sian par tic i pa tion in that oper a tion as
well as troops from Egypt, Morocco, and Jor dan. The pope wanted me to know that the chal lenges in
1
General George Joulwan is a former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.