A United Front

By Madeleine Albright 

Foreign Policy September 4, 2014

NATO's heads of state are beginning their summit in Wales -- what a doozy of a meeting this could and should be.

Ukraine is on the agenda because it is in Europe and is a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace. The Islamic State is, too, because it is -- as summit host British Prime Minister David Cameron said recently -- "a terrorist organization … seeking to establish and then violently expand its own terrorist state." It is a threat to the region, generally, and to Turkey (a NATO member whose south borders both Syria and Iraq), specifically. There will also be intense discussions about budget contributions and decision-making processes. And Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen should be thanked for his leadership. His five years of service at the helm have included critical NATO engagement in Afghanistan and Libya, and he continues to be an outspoken leader, especially in facing down Russia's provocations and arguing for a stronger alliance.

NATO was created in 1949 to counter the Soviet Union. In 1991, the USSR disintegrated and NATO began to expand. In the years that followed, NATO's expansion brought new partners to the fight against terrorism and provided security reform and reassurance to countries emerging from decades of conquest, occupation, and socialist misrule. Without NATO expansion, EU expansion would be more difficult, and Central Europe would be less prosperous and secure.

During this time, NATO's approach to Russia evolved as well. When I was U.S. secretary of state, we supported the NATO-Russia Founding Act, and I personally said to President Boris Yeltsin that if they wanted to, and fulfilled the requirements, we could welcome them into the alliance. The NATO-Russia Council was created. We were looking forward to a time of cooperation, with Russia playing a global power role as a guarantor of the international system, as when it helped enforce international norms against Saddam Hussein in 1991 and throughout the 1990s.

Unfortunately, President Vladimir Putin chose a different path. When the NATO summit in Wales was originally announced on Nov. 15, 2013, it was meant to focus on Afghanistan, 21st-century threats (such as cybersecurity), and alliance modernization (to include equitable burden-sharing -- NATO, after all, is not a charitable organization). Who would have predicted that one of the main topics would be the Russian invasion of Ukraine? The question now is how the most powerful alliance in the history of the world will react to such a blatant violation of international norms and principles, the first invasion of a country in Europe since World War II.

With the Soviet Union's demise in 1991, there was a legitimate question about the relevance of an alliance whose purpose no longer existed. In 2009, as NATO celebrated its 60th anniversary, leaders established a group of experts to advise on a new Strategic Concept. I was the U.S. representative, and Rasmussen asked me to chair the group of 11 other national experts. We submitted our recommendations, and a new Strategic Concept was adopted in Lisbon in 2010.

Our analysis and recommendations included reaffirming NATO's core commitment of collective defense, protecting against unconventional threats, establishing guidelines for operations outside alliance borders, establishing a new mission for missile defense, addressing new military capabilities, responding to the rising danger of cyberattacks, reviewing our nuclear weapons policy and preventing nuclear proliferation, engaging Russia, and entering a new era of partnerships.

The group of experts not only recognized the changing conditions of the times, but also looked for lessons learned from NATO's involvement in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. Most interesting was our examination of the Partnership for Peace (PfP), a mechanism to involve aspiring members in military exercises. In addition to the PfP, we saw that NATO had more partners than members in other parts of the world -- a very big club of countries with similar values.

This lesson is crucial as we look at ways for the alliance to respond to the dual challenges on its eastern border and in the Middle East. It would be a betrayal of our common values to let Russia's illegal behavior pass and allow Putin and his government to lie about what they are doing. There should be a decision out of Cardiff for more robust partnership exercises in and around Ukraine. Lethal military equipment should be on offer, as well as enhanced intelligence and border security assistance. And we cannot forget about Kiev -- there are immense domestic challenges Ukraine's new government must tackle for the results of Maidan to hold. On a positive note, the IMF has voted to release more assistance for Ukraine. This trend must continue.

If we allow Putin to get away with what he is doing, he will not only keep chewing away at pieces of a sovereign country, but also feel emboldened to destabilize other countries on Russia's western border.

U.S. President Barack Obama delivered important, forceful remarks in Tallinn on Wednesday, telling the people of Estonia -- and Latvia and Lithuania -- that they are protected by Article 5 of the NATO charter, saying that their defense is just as important as the defense of Berlin or Paris. He reiterated that all of us in this trans-Atlantic alliance stand with the people of Ukraine. And he reminded us that NATO is an alliance of democracies and open markets -- whose strength is derived from our core values -- "not aimed 'against' any other nation" but still committed to collective defense, and that remains open to new members.

It is imperative the leaders in Cardiff decide to strengthen NATO troops in the Baltics and make sure Americans are always among them. The (expected) agreement on a rapid-response force as part of a readiness action plan, to include pre-positioning of equipment and supplies, is also critical.

Only the U.S. president can rally the alliance. And only his unwavering advocacy, especially with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, can set the alliance on a constructive path. Putin has escalated an invasion to demonstrate strength, and only NATO has the ability to show him that his escalation cannot bring a lasting victory. The U.S. president can make clear what Russia has at stake as well. Putin says he wants Russia accepted as a global power. If Russia refuses to accept basic tenets of today's international system, it can only be a regional power, grasping at what it can take, and will never achieve influence where it cannot use force. Russia's behavior is a game-changer in the post-World War II world. We need to step up our game to make sure that Putin's rules do not govern the 21st century.

The Islamic State is also a game-changer. As Cameron said, "The ambition to create an extremist caliphate in the heart of Iraq and Syria is a threat to our own security" in the United Kingdom and, I would add, Europe and the United States. While our group of experts was careful not to involve the alliance in mission creep, in our assessment of threats we included the ambitions of international terrorist groups and the persistence of corrosive regional, national, ethnic, and religious rivalries. We made clear that the alliance has an interest in promoting security and stability beyond its immediate borders. That mission would be carried out with partners, including those around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East. Obama is dispatching U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to the region to rally partners for just such a mission.

Cardiff offers the opportunity to deliver several messages. To Russia: You cannot lie your way out of what you are doing, but when you respect international norms, you will be a respected member of the international community. To the Islamic State: There is no place for your barbarism in the 21st century, and you will never be recognized as a legitimate body. To the world: NATO is relevant and united.

Please read the full op-ed online at: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/09/04/a_united_front_madeleine_albright_nato_russia?utm_content=buffer7ead0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer