The Decay and Eventual Collapse Of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization

IHT
Posted : 2007-09-20 17:08:40

BERLIN: NATO is backing away from establishing a combat force that would be capable of moving rapidly into conflict areas because it lacks the money, the troops and the equipment, officials said Thursday.

NATO's decision to rethink the Response Force is a blow for the 26-member alliance, which was seeking a way to alter a cumbersome and reactive organization of the Cold War era to field flexible units capable of being deployed within days to carry out a range of operations, including counter-terrorism.

While NATO has changed significantly in recent years - seen in its involvement in combat in Afghanistan, for example - the way missions are financed and military equipment is procured has lagged.

Moreover, analysts said, the future of the Response Force could send a signal to the European Union, which is establishing its own "battle groups" - units of about 1,500 troops that could be sent to a conflict zone within 10 days.

"We are having trouble generating forces for all the missions that NATO, the EU, the UN and others need for missions around the world," said James Appathurai, the alliance's spokesman. The scope and size of the NATO response force would be reassessed, he said.

Appathurai said NATO military planners had yet to take any decisions on the future shape of the force, but he said they were looking at a smaller unit.

"We could have an NRF that is not always at 25,000," he said. He declined to say how far the force could be shrunk, saying "that's the question that the military is now chewing over."

Under the response force plan, nations commit elite units for six month rotations during which they are on standby for NATO operations, which could range form emergency humanitarian aid to first-entry combat missions.

Rumsfeld's successor, Robert Gates, has questioned whether the alliance should continue to mount a 25,000-standby force when allies are struggling to muster troops for Afghanistan and other ongoing missions.

Since the NRF was declared ready in November, 2006, NATO has increased its force in Afghanistan by 7,000 to 40,000. The alliance also maintains 16,000 troops in Kosovo.

Outside NATO operations, the United States has 169,000 U.S troops in Iraq. European allies provide most of the 13,600-strong UN mission in Lebanon and are currently planning to deploy a force to the border between Chad and Sudan.

"This is a strain, there is no secret to anybody, to generate all the forces we need for the various operations," Appathurai said. "There is great pressure of real world operations and the truth is that it is very difficult for nations to maintain the 25,000."

He said he expected allied military planners to come forward with a revised response force plan in time for a meeting of NATO defense ministers Oct. 24-25 in the Dutch seaside resort of Noordwijk.

Appathurai said he expected them to produce a plan that would maintain the principle of the NRF as a force for training and innovation. He said it should still be able to respond quickly for small scale operations and serve as "a backbone for potentially large military operations" but "not necessarily with the same rapidity."