‘The war on terrorism would not be possible without NATO’: a critique

Abstract

This article questions prevailing assumptions regarding the efficacy of NATO as a vehicle for waging the US-declared ‘war on terror’. It begins by critically assessing the evolution to date of NATO's involvement in this ‘war’, with a particular focus on the post-11 September interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Having placed NATO's actions within this empirical framework, the article expands its focus to consider a series of proposals, both military and political, that could, it has been suggested, form the foundation of NATO's future counter-terrorist agenda. The article concludes by suggesting that, far from being essential to the war on terror, NATO risks its own vitality in the medium-to-long-term by attempting to involve itself in areas where it has nothing of real value to offer.

Notes

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Lord Robertson, ‘Speech to the Brookings Institution’.

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President Chirac cited in Michael Evans and David Charter, ‘Karzai Isolated in Row over Need for Extra Troops’, The Times, 30 June 2004.

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Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003, Washington DC, US Department of State, 2004, p.88.

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Interview with the author, 14 November 2003.

Rohan Gunaratna, Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror (London: Hurst and Company, 2002), p.134.

Johnson and Zenko, ‘All Dressed Up’, p.55.

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’Joint Action, adopted by the Council on the basis of Article K:3 of the Treaty on European Union, concerning the creation and maintenance of a Directory of Specialised Counter-Terrorist Competencies, Skills and Expertise to facilitate counter-terrorism co-operation on 15 October 1996 – OJ L 273’, Brussels, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1996.

Johnson and Zenko, ‘All Dressed Up’, p.58.

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Prague Summit Declaration (Press Release (2002) 127), at <http://centre.defence.mod.uk/DGCC_NewsPortal/stories/november02/021121np.htm>.

Shea, ‘NATO and Terrorism’, p.37.

For details see National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, at <http://www.9-11commission.gov/about/index.htm.>and Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror (New York: Free Press, 2004).

Civil Contingency Planning to deal with Terrorist Attack (London: Home Office, 2003).

Aaron Weiss, ‘When Terror Strikes, Who Should Respond?’, Parameters (Autumn 2001), p.133.

‘Report of the Policy Working Group on the United Nations and Terrorism on 06 August 2002’, New York, United Nations, 2002.

Istanbul Summit Communiqué.

Owen Harries, ‘The Collapse of the West’, Foreign Affairs, Vol.72, No.4 (1993), p.45.