| New and Improved? |
18 August 2003
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NATO Takes Over Afghan Command
The US-led war against the Taliban in Afghanistan resulted in an occupying force of called the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) run by Germany and the Netherlands. This group is now a NATO entity. NATO, an organization in search of a mission, may have found something for itself to do -- putting a coat of internationalism on US foreign policy.
Founded to counter Soviet expansionism in Europe, NATO lost its raison d'etre ("Keeping the Russians out, the Germans down and the Americans in") when the Soviet Union passed into history. It has retooled it a bit to keep what was left of Yugoslavia from sparking a general European war, but Afghanistan is the first time the organization has worked outside NATO for nation-building purposes.
If the relationships and operating procedures established over the last half century still work without the Soviet threat, then the use of the NATO command structure to oversee the resurrection of Afghanistan only makes sense. The policy implications for the US and its European allies, though, if this operation is successful form the basis of continuing difficulties.
American unilateral action in the world will inevitably create situations in which NATO's capacity for administration in a post-war situation is ideal. However, there are also places where NATO's members may not wish to go because of the way in which US policymakers created the situation in the first place. Success in Afghanistan may lead to trouble in the alliance farther down the line. NATO's not out of the woods yet.
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