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

36 U.K. Secretary of State for Defence Des Browne
all eleven were to do so, we could expect 34,000 addi tional deploy able land forces for oper a tions, includ -
ing for the NATO Response Force.
I am glad to say that there is a grad ual upward trend towards meet ing this tar getthough the UK
would like to see the tar get itself raised to a level which would allow us to pro vide fully for all our com mit -
ments. But I some times won der whether the con cept of improv ing usabil ity in NATO is not embraced
with much warmth by some Allies. Indeed, in some quar ters, it is an exer cise con ducted through grit ted
teeth.
We cannot afford to be equiv o cal about trans for ma tion. Resources need to be switched away from
non-deploy able capa bil i ties. The United King dom and other Allies such as France have sought to find
inno va tive ways of devel op ing such capa bil i ties through ini tia tives to make more heli cop ters and stra te -
gic lift air craft avail able for oper a tions. But there is no get ting away from the fact that these capa bil i ties
require invest ment, and that means proper invest ment in defence and proper prioritisation on the things
that we need most.
We need to help the Alli ance under stand better its real pri or i ties, and then encour age it to focus and
organ ise itself to deliver them most effec tively.
We also need to be sure that resourcesmoney, of course, but even more impor tantly, peo ple and
their abil ity to think and actare being used efficiently against the priorities: operations, capabilities and
partnerships.
I am not sure that today I could claim the Alli ance is either clearly focused on the things we most need,
or on deliv er ing them as effi ciently and effec tively as pos si ble.
I could point to a non-deploy able com mand struc ture that is scarcely opti mised for the type of oper a -
tions we now con duct; or to a rigid com mit tee struc ture and cul ture which inhib its cross-cut ting think ing
and advice and is dis in clined to emphasise deliv ery. It is hard to pri ori tise invest ment deci sions, which still
tend to be driven too much by poten tial equip ment solu tions than by an anal y sis of capa bil ity require -
ments. The bud get ary con se quences of our deci sions are not as clear as they should be at the moment of
decision.
We need to help NATO take a fresh look at how it is organ ised to deliver. Driv ing change in con sen -
sus-based organi sa tions is noto ri ously hard and vul ner a ble to spe cial inter est lob bies. NATO Defence
Ministers have a particular responsibility to give political leadership in this taskI use the word lead er -
ship againputt ing the inter ests of the organi sa tion as a whole above the paro chial.
A mod ern ised NATO emphat i cally is not about doing less with less or some how cut ting down what
we desire to do. It is about doing prop erly what already we have said we need to do, by mak ing better use
of the resources which Allies are ready to com mit. And a well-man aged and well-focused Alli ance is far
more likely to attract invest ment for the long term.
A Frame work of Partnerships
Mod erni sa tion is also about let ting NATO show us how it can add more value to the sum of the 26
Allies. NATO’s great res er voir of knowl edge and exper tise about national capa bil i ties, for exam ple,
should serve as the basis for new ideas for fos ter ing ini tia tives between Allies, to deliver capa bil i ties we
need. We should be much more open to work ing with part ners to deliver these capa bil i ties. I am delighted
with the work we are already doing with Ukraine on heli cop ters, for exam ple. And the NATO-EU Capa -
bil ity Group shows how we can work more closely with oth ers in many other fields.
The third pil lar of NATO’s trans for ma tion, that of part ner ships, is a very impor tant one.
Globalisation brings new threats and chal lenges. But it also brings new part ners who share our val ues
and inter ests in tack ling them. NATO has had huge suc cess in build ing bridges and rela tion ships with