Harry Targ
Monday of the week of the long-advertised summit of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the organization’s Secretary-General
Jens Stoltenberg announced that it would increase “high-readiness military
forces from 40,000 to over 300,000.” https://truthout.org/articles/nato-will-increase-ranks-of-high-readiness-forces-by-650-percent/
Subsequently, leaders of NATO countries met in Madrid from June 29-30 and made key decisions to advance the organization and militarism in Europe and around the world. According to a NATO document the 30-nation military alliance identified “Russia as the most significant and direct threat to Allied security” and referred to “China for the first time,”and included “other challenges like terrorism, cyber and hybrid.” Perhaps most troubling from a peace point of view was the document’s announcement that deterrence and defense would be enhanced by “more troops and more pre-positioned equipment an weapon stockpiles in the east of the Alliance, enhancing NATO’s eight multinational battlegroups…”
NATO plans included recommitments of each member
country to provide 2 percent of their GDP to the organization’s budget and
invitations to new members, Sweden and Finland. NATO documents refer to the
Russian threat and “China’s growing influence and assertiveness.” For the first
time other attendees included representatives from
Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the Republic of Korea presumably in regard
to the China “threat.” In addition, the NATO press release referred to a
recommitment “to the fight against terrorism and addressed NATO’s response to
threats and challenges from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Sahel.” And
finally, the NATO partners made long term financial commitments to addressing
the climate crisis.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_196144.htm
At the closing press conference, the NATO Secretary General indicated that “we face the most serious security situation in decades.” Peace forces can agree with this conclusion but for different reasons. For example, the NATO summit made decisions to:
-Increase the militarization of Central Europe
-Once again increase the membership of the
organization
-Define Russia as the number one enemy of
international security
-Allude to China as an additional threat to world
security
-Globalize the conflict in Europe
-Once again fuel the arms race
-Make permanent the war in Ukraine
-And despite promises to the contrary, to sweep the
mortal threat of climate disaster under the rug.
(Just as an aside, NATO in the spring, 1955 decided to
admit the then Federal Republic of Germany into membership. One week later the
former Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact, a ‘security” organization that
mirrored NATO. Six years later, the United States and the Soviet Union almost
went to nuclear war over the then divided Germany. In other words, NATO’s
expansion over 60 years ago escalated tensions and the danger of nuclear war
between the two great powers).
On NATO’s “strategic concept” see:
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2022/6/pdf/290622-strategic-concept.pdf
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Peace Movement Needs to Demand
Dismantling of NATO
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/04/28/peace-movement-needs-to-demand-dismantling-of-nato/
