by Rose Gottemoeller
June 27, 2022
Introduction:
Read more here: https://thebulletin.org/2022/06/weapon ... t-heading(Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) This week’s NATO Summit in Madrid will launch a new Strategic Concept, NATO’s statement of its strategic goals and objectives, its purpose in life. With Russia threatening to use weapons of mass destruction, NATO’s approach to deterring chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear attacks will be in the global spotlight. Will NATO have something new to say on deterrence, or stick to the past?
This summit was meant to be many things that it will not. NATO was going to focus its attention for the first time on China, to think through how best to sustain the defense of Europe while the United States pivots to the Indo-Pacific. The defense of Europe, in this setting, would remain important, but more the purview of the European NATO allies, a kind of strategic rear guard against the main action, countering China’s rising influence.
The NATO Summit was also meant to be the celebratory hand-off between Jens Stoltenberg, who has served skillfully as NATO Secretary General for eight years, to a new Secretary General. Perhaps, for the first time, the person selected would be a woman.
Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine undid both these scenarios. Stoltenberg was extended in office for a year, and the hunt for his successor was suspended. Instead of focusing on China, NATO is helping Ukraine to fight for its life against Russia, defending the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, self-determination, and independence. These are the principles that underpin the post-World War II system, designed to render impossible the emergence of another murderous tyrant in Europe. Sadly, they are again under attack in Ukraine.
The stage is thus set for the summit in Madrid, where the allies will issue the new Strategic Concept. It will be the first since 2010, when the Euro-Atlantic area was “at peace and the threat of a conventional attack against NATO territory … low.”