No single summit can resolve NATO\u2019s deficiencies and meet its lofty goals, from reaffirming shared values to enhancing resilience, especially with a conventional conflict raging on its eastern doorstep. But the Madrid summit can \u2013 and must \u2013 lay the foundations for a more united, robust, and revitalized alliance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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MADRID \u2013 Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has repeatedly\u00a0hailed\u00a0NATO as the \u201cmost successful Alliance in history.\u201d But, at their upcoming summit in Madrid, NATO heads of state and government will face serious challenges, from America\u2019s weariness with Europe\u2019s tendency to \u201ctrade away\u201d geopolitical differences to tensions over Turkey\u2019s\u00a0efforts\u00a0to block Finland and Sweden\u2019s membership bids. Will transactional politics taint this summit \u2013 and NATO\u2019s future?<\/p>\n
To say that Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine has upended European security and shaken NATO from its stupor is to state the obvious. The relative certainty that defined the world order over the last few decades has given way to great-power conflict and the specter of nuclear annihilation. Finland and Sweden\u2019s\u00a0applications\u00a0for NATO membership represent not only a break from their own traditions of neutrality, but also the end of the post-Cold War era.<\/p>\n
NATO\u2019s priorities for the next decade, to be embodied in its next Strategic Concept \u2013 set to be adopted at this month\u2019s gathering \u2013 are supposed to reflect this new reality. For example, it is expected to mention China for the first time. In another first, all of NATO\u2019s Pacific partners (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea) will\u00a0attend\u00a0the summit, as will Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This is in line with\u00a0calls\u00a0\u2013 made, for example, by the United Kingdom \u2013 to create a more \u201cglobal NATO\u201d that boosts security in the Indo-Pacific region.<\/p>\n
But can NATO\u2019s newfound ambition withstand what increasingly looks like a protracted war of attrition in Ukraine, with the energy-market mayhem and economic turmoil it has engendered? Russia President Vladimir Putin is betting that the answer is \u201cno,\u201d and it might not be a bad bet. Despite bold early announcements by NATO allies, including promises of major\u00a0defense-spending increases\u00a0by many European countries, political fissures along the usual fault lines have already emerged.<\/p>\n
French\u00a0diplomatic activism\u00a0and German dithering have become increasingly intolerable to the United States, which is determined not to allow a repeat of the debacle involving Nord Stream 2, the gas pipeline (now suspended) that left Germany dependent on Russian supplies. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan remains\u00a0staunchly\u00a0opposed to consider the membership bids of Finland and Sweden, owing to their history of hosting members of Kurdish groups that Turkey considers terrorists, including the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK), which the US and the European Union also have classified as a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
To be sure, this is far from the first controversy Turkey has generated within NATO; just last year, Turkey, defying the US, agreed to\u00a0purchase\u00a0more S-400 missiles from Russia. But, as former NATO Secretary-General\u00a0Anders Fogh Rasmussen\u00a0put it in an unusually candid\u00a0interview, Erdo\u011fan\u2019s stonewalling on NATO expansion \u2013 motivated in no small part by the desire to extract concessions from the US \u2013 can be resolved.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s intransigence is thus unlikely to derail the summit. But a decision on Finland and Sweden\u2019s applications should be made soon; history shows \u2013 not least in Ukraine \u2013 that ambiguity over NATO membership can be worse than a flat-out rejection.<\/p>\n
More broadly, Alliance members must not allow grandstanding and political horse-trading to take precedence over addressing the\u00a0real challenges\u00a0NATO faces, including streamlining a tangled command structure, adjusting its defense and deterrence posture, and resolving military shortfalls and operational challenges. Crucially, NATO must upgrade its tools to reflect the changing nature of warfare, which now is shaped as much by cyberattacks and \u2013 as the Ukraine war clearly shows \u2013 by disinformation as by guns and tanks.<\/p>\n
The first steps toward meeting these imperatives must be made in Madrid. Of course, no single summit or text could resolve NATO\u2019s deficiencies and meet its lofty goals, from reaffirming shared values to enhancing resilience, especially with a conventional conflict raging on its eastern doorstep. But the Madrid summit can \u2013 and must \u2013 cement NATO\u2019s unity and lay the foundations for a more robust and revitalized Alliance.<\/p>\n
As NATO\u2019s main engine, the US has a crucial role to play in delivering this outcome. But European countries must also do their part, mustering the unity, vision, and will to develop its hard-power capabilities. We must do this not in the name of the dream of strategic autonomy, but to enhance NATO\u2019s capabilities and clout. While Europeans are understandably wary of another \u201cAmerica First\u201d leader \u2013 whether Donald Trump or an acolyte \u2013 coming to power in the US, the fact remains that it is in Europe\u2019s self-interest to help the US reclaim its leading role on the world stage.<\/p>\n
NATO has been on life support for years, and reviving it will be no easy feat. But the Alliance\u2019s faculties remain very much intact, and with a concerted effort, it can be truly worthy of Stoltenberg\u2019s praise. While rivals like China might still call it a remnant of the Cold War, they will still think twice \u2013 or more often \u2013 before challenging it. If NATO leaders fail, however, the West would be put at a serious strategic disadvantage.<\/p>\n
Read the original article on Project Syndicate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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