Blog Posts tagged with "senators"

Just left historic Munich, Germany where I was fortunate to attend and speak at their annual Security Conference.

Senator Lindsay Graham, of South Carolina, myself, and Senator John McCain, of Arizona, at the 46th Munich Security Conference.

What an all star crowd of attendees! There were senior and impressive delegations from around the globe, including all NATO nations, most of the Afghan contributing countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, China, India, South Korea, and many others. From the United States, the Congressional delegation included Senators McCain, Lieberman, Graham, Kerry, and Udall, as well as Representatives Sanchez and Harmon. I had the chance to talk with all of them and benefited from their collective wisdom.

Also, I was very happy as always to see two former SACEUR’s “in the house,” General Joe Ralston and General Jim Jones – both of whom took a great deal of time and trouble to give me expert advice as I became the first “Admiral” in this venerable post. General Jones, of course, is currently the National Security Advisor to the President and heads up the executive branch delegation. My good friend, and current U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, was also present.

I must also say that my views and thoughts about NATO have been shaped by two superb European officers with whom I serve every day – and both were present – Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, the Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee; and General Stephan Abrial, the “other Supreme Commander,” in his case of transformation.

Afghan President Karzai speaks during the conference.

There were two speeches that stood out to me. The first was given by Afghan President Karzai. He spoke at length about the possibility of reintegration and reconciliation with more moderate Taliban. Secretary General Rasmussen also delivered an excellent speech focusing on his hopes for positive strategic cooperation with Russia.

There was a great deal of discussion about the NATO Strategic Concept, which is forthcoming, late this fall. I think the key word is “balance.” Life is not an on-and-off switch; it is a rheostat. We must be capable of dialing-in the solutions to the challenges we face – as people, parents, diplomats, or soldiers and sailors.

I think we need to achieve a balance between:

Article V Collective Defense.................Overseas engagement
Hard Power.........................................Soft Power/Humanitarian operations
Conventional threat.............................Emerging threats / NBC / Terrorism

From an operator's perspective, I have been emphasizing several key ideas in terms of the Strategic Concept:

CYBERSPACE. In today’s world, the likelihood of disruption and perhaps attack with a gravity bomb from the wing of an aircraft against one of our member nations is low; but the chance of offensive photons flowing down a fiber optic cable is high. (More on this in my blog next week!)

Ms. Madeleine Albright answers questions during a NATO strategy panel discussion.

COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH. In the end, we will never fully deliver security from the barrel of a gun; not in Afghanistan nor anywhere else. It will come as a combination of the so-called “3 Ds” – Defense, Diplomacy, and Development. I say it is even broader than that, and will require political, economic, cultural, linguistic, military, skills – in simplest terms, combining international, interagency, and private-public approaches. And all must be undergirded by strategic communication.

NATO COOPERATION WITH EU. We should work hard to define a better operational working modality between NATO and the European Union. We need complementary operations, and what is happening in counter-piracy off the horn of Africa is a good example of where we need to go.

TRANSFORMATION. We can and should restructure the operational side of the Alliance to make it more lean and efficient. I’ll leave it to others to decide the Brussels side of the headquarters, or Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, but, I believe we can streamline and reduce command structure from Allied Command Operations. We should not be afraid of that, and we should levereage innovation, new technologies and approaches to make sure this works properly.

I am engaging in conversation at the 46th Munich Security Conference.

Overall, I am a strong believer in the Alliance and I tried to communicate that in Munich. What connects us within NATO is vastly more important than what divides us today, despite the potential for some differences in views.

NATO remains the richest, strongest alliance in history; with $31 Trillion in GDP, 3+ million soldiers and sailors under arms and 80% of them are volunteers. No nation has ever attacked a NATO nation; nor has a NATO nation ever attacked another NATO nation. Not bad for 60 years of age!

The future is complicated, but I’m confident NATO will continue to be a global force for good. To me, that was the message at the Munich Security Conference.

Adm. James Stavridis
Commander, U.S. European Command and
Supreme Allied Commander Europe