Alone We Fail

NATO was founded 60 years ago. It was founded by a rather small group of countries after the Second World War. It was a select group of countries ( friends ) that made a big official commitment to each other by signing the Washington Treaty.
These founding countries decided in all friendship that they needed a super power, a joint force of diplomacy, science, technology, and yes, military too… In fact the military task was the most important.
The treaty was written with genius expertise and in simple and comprehensive words. Easy to understand for everyone that could read. It was written in friendship, understanding and a common goal. Even so many years later, every article is still very simple as useful and real. I think that everyone hoped at that moment of signing the treaty, that they would never be put in a position that they were forced to use art. 5.
So it is not about going to war as such, in fact it never was. It is all about how can we react in case of an attack and how can we secure peace and therefore our future, the future of the members.
NATO was founded to defend humanity and to prevent wars and human suffering like we had during the holocaust of the second world war. It started as a Euro-North Atlantic Issue. Now, 60 years later, we live in a different world. We made progress, but we don’t have peace in every corner of our world. More, a serious crisis in Korea can have an impact on Germany. Something not every European seems to realize, unfortunately.
Communication Technology made it possible to work together from Pakistan to Australia without even leaving your room. Technology made progress, human communication didn’t ! And still, people still want friendship and peace. Human values and the global search and desire for peace are the key legitimacy for an organization as NATO.
Peace in a without any commitment and willingness to forgive will not last long. Besides it is always better to have friends than to have enemies. Unfortunately peace is not for everyone the same in this world. Something we experience now with global terrorism, to name something.
The presence of terrorism may however never become an excuse to delete all privacy laws and respect for others. There can never be a consensus about this, because it touches humanity itself.
The first field experience in history with NATO’s art. 5 was caused by the attacks of 9/11/2001. The world was in deep shock. Ten years later we still feel what happened on that dark day in history. I still remember how I saw the planes go in the buildings, and how it made me realize that communication is key in our world.
Never in human history something like this happened. It was new, a new threat, a new challenge for us all and also for NATO. Immediately everyone realized that it would be fault to bomb the world to hell as a result to this event. Diplomacy played his role. Intelligence was needed, pooling intelligence was the new thought and the rest we all know.
This attack was the beginning of a new time. A time with more member states, more partnerships, more cooperation. There were also new needs for IT-Security, Border-Control, …
What remained, during those 60 years of NATO’s existence, is the need for peace. Media often have comments on the existence of a military organization, but what matters are the people behind this organization. NATO has faces, much more than 60 years ago. Only, who wants to be in the spotlight when you know media will only try to damage the organization in its existence ? Politicians were engaged, to inform the public and world press.
About members and partners, … back to basics. A member made other commitments than a partner. A member is a friend who will fight for you, who will be there for you when the going gets though. A partner is someone who helps you, but who cannot support all your actions due to the delicacy or difficulty of his/her environment or his/her own limitations. It is not a shame to be just a partner. It is an honor to be a member. A member is your best friend, a partner is a good friend who helps where possible. Therefore a partner is not a member, but the door should always be open !
Some comments we have in our local press are : ( my private answers are besides the q-marks )

Should NATO use his knowledge to establish peace when it comes to crisis management ? YES, surely, why not !
Should EU-Membership mean automatic NATO-Membership ? Exclusions are always contra-productive. Therefore EU and NATO should become more coherent than today.
Is the name NATO up to date ? North-Atlantic for Global Issues… ? That’s how it started, let’s keep that in mind, and never forget.
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To end this reply :
About intelligence : the nurture for diplomacy : NATO’s role as a trustworthy intelligence pooler and supplier could be more efficient to deal with future problems. Could there be a rule for NATO Member states to share all intelligence ? A partner would then be a country that doesn’t do this for its own reasons.

Best Regards,

Bert VH