Summary
Marc Bentinck
Investeren in de NAVO: oefening in Europees leiderschap
Marc Bentinck makes a case for a renewed investment in NATO on the part of the transatlantic allies, and more in particular the Europeans. NATO's energetic attempts at reinventing itself following the end of the Cold War cannot conceal two facts: the organisation – certainly under the ‘unilateralist' first Bush Jr Administration – no longer enjoys the same pre-eminence in US global strategy as it once had; it has also lost its earlier monopoly on European security issues due to the rise of the EU's security and defence policy (ESDP). The Iraq crisis appears to only have accelerated the process of mutual estrangement between Americans and Europeans with their increasingly divergent ‘strategic cultures'. Yet the transatlantic allies should face up to the fact that they must stand united if they are to confront successfully the daunting security challenges of the future. In doing so, they must avail themselves to the fullest extent possible of NATO's inherent, but under-utilised, political and military resources. The North Atlantic Council should become the locus of a broad, open, and if need be critical, strategic dialogue, while NATO's integrated military structure should help push through the modernisation of European forces and their interoperability with the US military. To the extent that the second Bush Jr Administration will wish to repair the transatlantic relationship the Europeans – i.e. primarily Great Britain and France recapturing the spirit of ‘St Malo' – have a window of opportunity to assert themselves by displaying leadership within NATO. European initiatives in NATO should help the transatlantic allies regain a shared sense of strategic purpose. The Europeans do need such a transatlantic renewal, if their ‘autonomous' pursuit of European security interests is to amount to more than the mere urge to differentiate themselves from the United States.