By Nicholas Williams & Simon Lunn, Policy brief, 9 July 2024, European Leadership Network-ELN
Link : NATO’s revival of collective defence and the challenge of national commitments
By Nicholas Williams & Simon Lunn, Policy brief, 9 July 2024, European Leadership Network-ELN
Link : NATO’s revival of collective defence and the challenge of national commitments
“Here is the latest policy brief which our Vice-President, Nicholas Williams and his former NATO colleague, Simon Lunn, wrote for the European Leadership Network in anticipation of the NATO summit in Washington. We point out that, despite the celebrations for NATO’s 75th anniversary, the Alliance is not yet able to defend “every inch” of allies’ territory – not for a long while yet.”
> Nicholas Williams, OBE is a Senior Associate Fellow for the European Leadership Network (ELN). He was a long-serving member of NATO’s International Staff, most recently as Head of Operations for Afghanistan and Iraq. Prior to this, Nick served in senior positions in NATO, EU, and British missions in Afghanistan, Bosnia Herzegovina, and Iraq. He began his career in the British Ministry of Defence working on defence policy and planning issues, with multiple secondments to NATO functions during the Cold War and to the French Ministry of Defence in its aftermath. Mr. Nicholas Williams is the Vice President of CERIS-ULB Diplomatic School of Brussels since 2021.
> Simon Lunn is a Senior Associate Fellow for the European Leadership Network (ELN). As Secretary General of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly 1997 to 2007, Simon initiated the Assembly’s program of partnership and assistance to the parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe. From 1979 to 81, he worked in the US Congressional Research Service preparing reports for Congress on NATO strategy and the 1979 INF decision. After positions at the RIIA Chatham House and the European Parliament, he was appointed Head of Plans and Policy on NATO’s International Staff 1983 to 88 and was involved in force planning and conventional arms control.
In a new Policy Brief by the European Leadership Network (ELN), ELN Senior Associate Fellows Nicholas Williams and Simon Lunn analyse the re-emergence of collective defence as a focus for NATO and what it means for national governments in the alliance.
The approval of NATO’s regional plans at the Vilnius summit in 2023 marked the most important step by NATO towards a fully-fledged collective defence for the first time in over 30 years. It was a sign of how seriously NATO leaders took the Russian threat. The regional plans are demanding and complex. They will almost certainly cost NATO members more than the current commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence, let alone 2.5% of GDP, which many now believe is necessary. They have received remarkably little public or parliamentary scrutiny. They raise several questions in terms of affordability, oversight of the military and even their compatibility with the oft-debated question of a European defence capability. It is doubtful whether the full resource and policy consequences of these plans have been fully examined or absorbed.
NATO’s regional plans should be the subject of detailed parliamentary scrutiny by the various individual national parliaments, whose role should focus on ensuring that national commitments to NATO are consistent with the resources and political aims of their respective countries. In particular,