-Caveat Lector-
<<Interesting to note that the Euros (minus France) have been depending on
American military superiority for a half century (not counting the two wars)
for security and support and NOW they've only discovered the imbalance ?
A<>E<>R >>
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www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : North America
US State Department warns against European military independence from NATO
By Richard Tyler
12 October 1999
Back to screen version
A recent London meeting revealed sharp differences between the US and Europe
over the role of NATO and the European Union in the field of defence.
At a conference held at the Royal Institute of International Affairs October 7-
8, entitled “NATO: Development in Partnership—Engagement and Advancement after
2000”, US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot bluntly warned Europe against
developing a military capability standing outside NATO.
He was responding to comments by Britain's Defence Secretary George Robertson,
who is about to become the new NATO secretary general. Robertson called for a
significant increase in European Union (EU) defence forces and hardware. He
told the conference : “We want to ensure that strong and effective military
resources are also available to the European Union, so that we can take action
in support of the Common Foreign and Security Policy when NATO as a whole is
not engaged militarily. This means that we need to develop the EU's capacity to
take timely and informed decisions on emerging crises.”
Strobe Talbot said of the European Security and Defence Identity (ESDI): “We
would not want to see an ESDI that comes into being first within NATO but then
grows out of NATO and finally grows away from NATO, since that would lead to an
ESDI that initially duplicates NATO but that could eventually compete with
NATO. That's a long-term concern, obviously, but NATO, after all, is about the
long term, and so is this conference” (emphasis in the original).
Talbot told the conference that the central question was “the transatlantic
relationship in the wake of the conflict in Kosovo”. He said, “On this subject,
I sense a basic difference of view on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Many
Americans are saying: never again should the United States have to fly the
lion's share of the risky missions in a NATO operation and foot by far the
biggest bill. Many in my country, notably including members of Congress, are
concerned that, in some future European crisis, a similar predominance of
American manpower, firepower, equipment and resources will be neither
politically nor militarily sustainable, given the competing commitments our
nation has in the Gulf, on the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere around the
world.”
Talbot described the European position as being “determined never again to feel
quite so dominated by the US as they did during Kosovo or, for that matter,
during Bosnia; in the next crisis—whatever, wherever and whenever it is—our
Allies want a say in the conduct of operations more nearly commensurate with
the political onus that they bear in supporting the war.”
Both Talbot and Robertson pointed to the massive imbalance in military
capability between America and the countries of the European Union, as
highlighted in the NATO war against Yugoslavia. Robertson said: “We Europeans
flew only a third of the total number of aircraft sorties during the campaign,
and only 20 percent of the strike sorties. It was American military power that
gave credibility to the diplomatic campaign.”
Underscoring Europe's present inability to mount large-scale military
operations independently of the US, Robertson said the European commitment to
KFOR, “deploying a force of a few tens of thousands, less than 2 percent of the
total military personnel available to us, has undoubtedly stretched our
collective resources”.
Press reports indicate that the European Union intends to develop its capacity
to make a corps-sized deployment of some 100,000 troops. Although the combined
size of the European armed forces is over 1 million, a large proportion of
these are relatively unskilled conscripts. In addition, Europe's ability to
project its military capacity is far behind that of the US. It does not have
the extensive logistical and transport facilities required to quickly move and
support a large force over a protracted period. The EU also has a significant
deficit on precision guided munitions. Only France has its own independent
intelligence satellites.
The underlying tensions between American and European imperialism were brought
out earlier in remarks made by outgoing NATO Secretary General Javier Solana on
October 6. Speaking to the press, Solana said his new position as EU High
Representative for foreign affairs would focus on developing a common European
defence policy. “The agenda of the security of Europe will continue to be one
of my main concerns as I move on to the European Union”, he said. “The
experience I have learned here [at NATO] will be without any doubt of great
importance for me as I develop the European Security and Defense Identity
[ESDI] looking toward the twenty-first century.''
Solana added, "I realise a lot of people in the United Sates are very sensitive
about what we are trying to do." Indicating the potential for disagreements to
rapidly escalate, Solana said, “I hope we can find ways to calm everybody
down."
At the September NATO ministers' conference, US Defence Secretary William S.
Cohen had cautioned about developing an independent European defence policy:
“What we would insist upon ... is that the Transatlantic link remain strong.”
The European Security and Defence Identity should not be “something that is a
separate bureaucratic institution, but something constructed under the umbrella
of NATO itself”, he said. “Whatever developments take place under ESDI, there
must be a transparency between NATO and EU, that there should be a sharing of
information representatives from EU to NATO. As ESDI is developed the
capabilities remain constant with those identified in the Defence Capabilities
Initiative so we don't have one set of requirements developing in Europe and a
separate set for NATO, which would lead to certainly a disassociation of those
kind of requirements and capabilities.”
At the September conference, Cohen also underscored the need for increased
military spending, particularly on the part of Europe: “We envision the NATO
countries acquiring what we call precision guided munitions. This was
demonstrated during the Kosovo conflict, compared for example to Desert Storm,
where most of the munitions that were dropped were not precision guided ...
those that have them in short supply will have to replenish them and increase
their inventories; those that do not have them, we hope that they will turn to
them as well for the future.”
Washington is keen to spread the financial burden of military operations such
as the war against Yugoslavia, while ensuring that the ultimate political and
military control remains in their hands. This was Strobe Talbot's message in
London.
For their part, the ruling classes in Europe must develop a military capacity
commensurate with their economic power, or continue to defer to America. The
scramble for influence in the new areas of the globe opened up for exploitation
will not be determined by economic factors alone. As in the early days of
imperialist expansion, the threat of force must be accompanied by a willingness
to apply it.
Copyright 1998-99
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
{{<End>}}
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