Athena 2011 Crisis Management International Conference

Thessaloniki 01-04 June 2011

New NATO Strategic Concept and Crisis Management

Fotini Bellou, Assist. Prof. with the University of Macedonia

The Comprehensive Approach

• Involves the understanding that in post-conflict regions OR areas in crisis providing security for the citizens is not enough for an effective international peace operation unless this effort is compounded with all those civilian elements that would provide the citizens of the region sustainable peace

The objective

“When asking what sustains peace, we must move gradually from immediate alleviation of humanitarian and security situation to meet the longer term expectations of development, good governance and economic growth.”

Finnish MFA: Alexander Stubb (May 2010)

We have to admit the indispensability between security and development

“where possible and when necessary”

• To prevent crises

• To manage crises

• Stabilize post-conflict situations and

• Support reconstruction

• BEFORE- DURING – AFTER CRISES

C.A. : including counter-insurgency *The figure is used by the UN Capstone Doctrine

C.A. Requirements

1) the organisational challenges - how to strengthen coordination and cooperation between various international organisations and NGOs,

2) the functional challenge - how to make best use of various efforts by civilian and military crisis management,development cooperation, humanitarian aid and political efforts, and

3) the challenge of local ownership - how to build a better link between international efforts and local actors, and reinforce the local ownership which is the key to a successful transition.

Finnish MFA: Alexander Stubb (May 2010)

It involves

Cooperation with national and international levels in order to:

combine civil and military resources and coordinate the measures and practices required for effective results

C.A. History

• In 2006 NATO adopted the political guidance for C.A.

• In 2008 NATO adopted the C.A. Action Plan in Bucharest

• In 2009 NATO reaffirmed its commitment to the Strasbourg-Kehl summit

NATO’S Action Plan

• 1.Revising operational planning and conduct of operations as to integrate the nonmilitary expertise (i.e.Senior Civil Emergency Planning Committee or others) with the military authorities

• 2. using lessons learned and trying to take C.A. to training, education and exercises. Joint training fosters mutual understanding, trust and respect amongst NATO, its partners, and other international and local actors

NATO’S Action Plan

• 3. enhance cooperation with international actors (the UN, the EU, OSCE, NGOs and local authorities)

• 4. Public messaging is considered crucial, if the C.A. is to be developed. NATOs commitment to conflict resolution and sustainable peace through international cooperation shall be made visible to the international public

NATO commitment

• Experience in the Balkans and Afghanistan demonstrates that today's security challenges require a comprehensive approach by the international community, combining civil and military measures and coordination. Its effective implementation requires:

• all international actors to contribute in a concerted effort, • in a shared sense of openness and determination, • taking into account their respective strengths and mandates. • We welcome the significant progress achieved, in line with the

Action Plan agreed at Bucharest, to improve NATO's own contribution to such a comprehensive approach, including through a more coherent application of its crisis management instruments and efforts to associate its military capabilities with civilian means.

• [Strasbourg/Kehl Summit Declaration Issued by the Heads of State and Government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Strasbourg/Kehl, 4 April 2009,

NAC Strasbourg/Kehl, 4 April 2009,

• Progress includes NATO's active promotion of dialogue with relevant players on operations;

• the development of a database of national experts in reconstruction and stabilisation to advise NATO forces;

• and the involvement of selected international organisations, as appropriate, in NATO crisis management exercises.

The Afganistan “paradigm”

“As soon as I arrived, General McChrystal took me into his briefing room in ISAF Headquarters, and put up onto a big screen a graphic display of all the factors, military and civilian, we had to take into account if we are to succeed, and all the interconnections between them.  There were hundreds of lines, going in every direction.  It looked like someone had dumped a huge pot of cooked spaghetti onto the projector.”

NATO SG. Anders Fogh Rasmussen (10 Apr.2010)

Rasmussen for Afganistan

• “The complexity of that graph was intended to make a very simple point:  everything is connected. In Afghanistan, there can be no development without security.  But equally, there can be no lasting security without development”

Comprehensive approach

• What is needed: • Preoperational planning and coordination• Pre-planned catalogue of capabilities • New doctrines and principles for working and

cooperating with civilians and NGOs• Agreements are essential but are still pending…• More so funding this training as well as the

resources.• Collective knowledge and understanding

It requires

• Member states need to be prepared to plan and oversee the full spectrum of activities and resources in a operational environment.

• A standing civilian cadre compounded with relevant capabilities as to be able to provide a readily deployable civilian force to undertake tasks of reconstruction and stabilization.

It requires

• A long-term strategic shift, not merely the implementation of a new concept

Major Shortcoming of CA

• UN (Global perspective)

• NATO (Military primacy and thus the rest shall follow)

• EU (civilian and developmental prerogatives YET difficult in agreeing to share this)

• NGOs (sceptical about the militarization of humanitarianism)

Major shortcoming for C.A.

• Who is going to coordinate whom?

• Nobody wants to be coordinated

The Western Balkans

BiH • EUFOR- Althea- (with NATO assets)• EUPM (police mission)

• Kosovo

KFOR (NATO military op.)

EULEX (EU rule of law op)

Not easy but feasible cooperation

Yet, the W.B. offer the “luxury” of promoting C.A. in a permissive environment.

A Paradigm of a comprehensive cooperative security

• The strong cooperation and coordination in the fight against Maritime piracy in the Gulf of Eden involving NATO and:

• major IOs, • key Great Powers, • Establishment of new ad hoc structures • The key issue for this achievement was the

unity of purpose that was immediately built as soon as a serious common threat arose.

Thank you