NATO

Question 1

What is NATO?

Answer 1

• political-military alliance
• crisis management organization
• community of values
• 29 member states

Question 2

What are the origins of NATO?

Answer 2

1947: Treaty of Dunkirk (France & UK)
1949: North Atlantic Treaty -> NATO
(“keep russians out, american in, germans down”)
“if NATO is still needed in 10 years = failure”

Question 3

What does the NATO treaty entail?

Answer 3

1. community of values
2. diplomacy first
3. economic dimension
4. capacities (collective capacities/systems & develop own capacity)
5. mutual assistance (with intergovernmental consent)
6. collective defense (9/11)
7. UNSC primary

Question 4

How is the NATO structure distinct?

Answer 4

civilian structure vs. military structure

Question 5

What is the breakdown of the civilian structure?

Answer 5

1. Secretary General (mediator & external face)

2. North Atlantic Council (plenary organ, weekly meetings if member representatives, consensus decision making)

Question 6

What is the breakdown of the military structure?

Answer 6

1. Military Committee (military decisions, consensus, based on Council decisions)
2. Allied Command Operations (ACO) (operational planning and military operation leading)
3. Allied Command Transformation (ACT) (strategic planning, training, education for future challenges)

Question 7

In what 2 ways is the NATO budget funded?

Answer 7

Common funding vs joint funding

Question 8

What is the difference between common and joint funding?

Answer 8

Common funding: assessed contributions based on GDP & defense budgets
Joint funding: voluntary contributions to concrete projects (mostly this one)

Question 9

What other funding methods does NATO have?

Answer 9

• military missions paid by participating states
• 6 months rotating response force
• “costs lie where they form”

Question 10

What are some challenges NATO faces?

Answer 10

US-EU burden-sharing and membership enlargement

Question 11

What is the burden-sharing challenge?

Answer 11

• heavy US financing vs. Europe barely contributes

- after 9/11: US increased defense budget while EU didn’t = widened gap

Question 12

What is the membership enlargement challenge?

Answer 12

• more countries joining - East European countries (Baltic states)
• implications: Russia-NATO tensions
• led to NATO-Russia Council (permanent dialogue -> equality, primarily for consultation but some decision-making power)

Question 13

EU-NATO relationship?

Answer 13

• due to overlapping security IOs -> strategic partnership (2016) with cooperation on some sectors
• right now, no optimal coordination
• 3 EU-NATO scenarios:
  1. unravelling of European integration
  2. Co-existence and duplication of resources
  3. Europeanization of NATO

Question 14

What is the current course of NATO

Answer 14

• basic conditions for NATO has returned:
  
  1. threat from the east (Russia) nuclear weapons
  2. defense of 3 baltic countries
  3. Now also added Iran and China
• US must lead the way and sense of democracy