A shared security strategy for a Euro-Atlantic partnership of equals
This is a decisive period for the institutions of the Euro-Atlantic community and the 34 member states that belong to either the European Union or NATO (or both). Traditional concerns—security, economic, political, and societal—have become bundled into challenges that cannot be addressed by any single nation or institution. Capabilities, too, need to be bundled in a comprehensive approach that combines hard and soft power into smart power, to be used by the states and institutions that can best provide those capabilities. Americans and Europeans must work together, therefore, to develop comprehensive approaches to today’s challenges to ensure that tomorrow’s solutions are effective for them and the rest of the world.
Consequently, this is an opportune moment to pursue the development of a shared Euro-Atlantic security strategy for a rebalanced partnership, through different but converging national and institutional venues: NATO, which will establish a committee of “wise men” to draft a new strategic concept; the United States, which is expected to release a new National Security Strategy later in 2009; and the European Union, which should take its strategic thinking forward and regard the 2008 Implementation Report as the start rather than the end of a process.
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(Photo credit: EP, Flickr)