NATO’s 60th anniversary summit in Strasbourg-Kehl this month is rightly a time to look back with some satisfaction on past achievements. There have been many. But it is also a time to look to the future; to the changing nature of the challenges we face, and how NATO should best be structured and equipped to face them. A new Strategic Concept is needed to articulate a vision for a twenty-first century Alliance.
NATO's Diamond Jubilee: a Time to Look to the Future
This year NATO turns 60 and it is appropriate that the Heads of State and Government of 26 Allies should be gathering together this month in Strasbourg and Kehl to mark this anniversary. The strategically important area of the Rhine, so often fought over from Roman times to the two World Wars, now epitomises the vision of Europe, united, free and at peace that was shared by Robert Schuman, Ernest Bevin and Dean Acheson when they put their pens to the Washington Treaty in 1949.
NATO is a remarkably enduring organisation, one that President Obama has described as the ‘greatest alliance ever to defend our common security’. The core values of the Washington Treaty have served it well, and ring just as true today as they did 60 years ago: faith in the principles of the United Nations; a desire to live in peace with all peoples and governments; the will to work collectively for peace and security in the transatlantic area, based on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law; above all, a recognition that the security of the peoples of North America and Europe is one and the same.
On the occasion of its diamond jubilee, the Allies can reminisce on past achievements with some satisfaction. NATO has come a long way. Over 60 years, the strategic environment has changed dramatically; the geopolitical map of Europe has changed literally. The Alliance has itself had a leading role in shaping these changes.
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