Gates: In crisis, NATO must change

February 24, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the war in Afghanistan as his guide, Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday called for sweeping changes in the way NATO prepares for and fights nontraditional conflicts.

Citing a “crisis” in the alliance, Gates said Afghanistan has exposed fundamental NATO weaknesses — shortcomings that he said can undermine the viability of NATO as it faces future security threats.

He cited a money shortage within NATO — a perennial problem that successive American administrations have tried and failed to fix. That, in turn, is a “symptom of deeper problems with the way NATO perceives threats,” assesses its defense needs and sets spending priorities, Gates said.

Gates tempered his stern message with words of praise for NATO allies, saying they had demonstrated in just the last three months an “unparalleled level of commitment” to the war effort by increasing their troop contributions from 30,000 last summer to 50,000 this year.

“By any measure, that is an extraordinary feat,” he said. He did not mention, however, that even NATO members who have shared the combat burden in Afghanistan are finding it hard to sustain.

In the Netherlands, for example, the coalition government collapsed this month over the issue of troop contributions; the 2,000-strong Dutch troop contingent is to begin withdrawing in August. Another stalwart, Canada, plans to remove 2,800 troops by next year, even as some other nations send more.

NATO’s budget squeeze reflects a larger cultural and political trend within an alliance, Gates said. After decades of success in preventing a catastrophic eruption of conflict on the European continent, NATO member countries have failed to modernize their militaries — instead relying on superior U.S. firepower.

Afghanistan, however, has shown that a superpower cannot succeed alone in a conflict that requires not just traditional military strength but also civilian expertise and the clout of international support.

“The demilitarization of Europe — where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it — has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st,” he told a National Defense University audience filled with uniformed military officers from many of NATO’s 28 member countries.

The danger, he added, is that potential future adversaries may view NATO as a paper tiger.

“Not only can real or perceived weakness be a temptation to miscalculation and aggression, but, on a more basic level, the resulting funding and capability shortfalls make it difficult to operate and fight together to confront shared threats,” Gates told a forum on rewriting the basic mission plan of the NATO alliance.