UK Ministry of Defence,
In a speech given at the Berlin Security Conference today, Thursday 27 November 2008, British Defence Secretary John Hutton has said that NATO must confront the security issues of our time and succeed in Afghanistan to maintain its crucial credibility.
Mr Hutton named the security threats facing the modern world as proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and economic and energy insecurity, and stated all members must adapt to meet these modern threats which threaten nation states' security or NATO would risk irrelevance.
Success in Afghanistan, he urged, is fast emerging as the test of NATO credibility in this new post cold war age:
“A test that we must pass together because the security of all our allies depend upon it,” he said. “NATO prevailed in the cold war. Our democracies strengthened and secured. And it achieved all of this not by standing still. But by adapting and changing to the world. And so it must do so again today.”
Terrorism, he added, may not threaten our borders but it threatens our way of life, our values, our security:
“But it is obvious now that we also need to be geared towards tackling national security challenges across a wider front. Terrorism, counter-insurgency, economic and energy insecurity, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These are the modern day security threats to Alliance members that NATO must be capable of dealing with. We will not be able to confront them by looking back, by relying on the old doctrines of the cold war and all that went with it.
“More than ever we need NATO forces that are flexible, adaptable and deployable. This goes to the heart of why we have a transformation process in NATO. 'Transforming' for a purpose. And that purpose is modern day relevance for this unique Transatlantic Alliance.”
He also said that work must be done, including inside NATO, to remind the public why NATO must succeed in Afghanistan:
“It is a mistake for any of us to simply assume public consent for this or any other mission. Consent must always be earned. Whether we like it or not, many people don't connect what happens in those mountain ranges and deserts with the threat to security in our own communities.”
He also spoke about NATO's role in leading the operations in Afghanistan:
“NATO can play a decisive role in leading or supporting all of the key elements of this international strategy for Afghanistan. In providing security for effective governance to take root. In building Afghan capacity across the Army and Police forces to lead security. Security success is about creating an indigenous Afghan capability that can support its own border and suppress insurgency. And already the Afghans are making a huge and growing contribution to this task.
Speaking in Berlin he added:
“At this difficult economic time, the most prosperous members of the Alliance, such as Germany and the UK, are the ones that must shoulder the burden.
“In Afghanistan NATO faces a real test of its credibility in the modern age. I do not want to see NATO become irrelevant to the critical security questions of our age – bypassed by new structures and coalitions. But these ad hoc 'coalitions of the willing' are a reality. If they become the security vehicle of choice for nations then NATO will have failed. So NATO has a choice. And we, as its political and military leaders, are ultimately responsible for shaping and making that choice.”
