Abstract
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the Young Atlanticists on 19 November 2010 that NATO’s impending Lisbon Summit was one of the most important in the alliance’s history. It would, he pledged, see the adoption of ‘an ambitious new Strategic Concept that will launch an Alliance that will be more effective, more engaged, and more efficient’.1 This would be NATO’s third such document since the Cold War and the seventh in its history — but the first since the alliance’s post-9/11 transformation — and would provide the blueprint for the organization for the next ten years. In the event the Lisbon Summit went smoothly. Alliance leaders duly adopted to much fanfare a Strategic Concept designed to be the foundation for NATO 3.0, the third phase of the organization’s post-Cold War reinvention. At the same time progress was made on Afghanistan, the NATO-Russia relationship was energized and the alliance’s member states managed to avoid offering public evidence of disharmony.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Timo Noetzel and Benjamin Schreer, ‘Does a Multi-tier NATO Matter? The Atlantic Alliance and the Process of Strategic Change’, International Affairs, Vol. 85 (2), March 2009, pp. 211–26;
Jakub M. Godzimirski, Nina Græger and Kristin M. Haugevik, ‘Towards a NATO à la Carte? Assessing the Alliance’s Adaptation to New Tasks and Changing Relationships’, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs 2010, available at: http://english.nupi.no/content/download/81114/273842/version/3/file/NUPI+Report-Gr%C3%A6ger+Godzimirdki-Haugevik.pdf, last accessed 22 June 2012.
Hew Strachan, ‘The Lost Meaning of Strategy’, Survival, Vol. 47 (3), 2005, pp. 33–54, at p. 34 and p. 48.
Colin S. Gray, Modern Strategy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 16.
An excellent example of Albright’s robust views about the needs for Western military intervention on both humanitarian and strategic grounds is her famous demand of Colin Powell during the outrages in Bosnia: ‘What’s the point of having this superb military that you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?’ Colin Powell, My American Journey (New York: Random House, 1995), p. 576.
Klaus Wittmann, ‘An Alliance for the 21st Century? Reviewing NATO’s New Strategic Concept’, in J. Ringsmose and S. Rynning (eds.), NATO’s New Strategic Concept: A Comprehensive Assessment, DIIS Report 2011:2, p. 36.
Jamie Shea, ‘What does a New Strategic Concept do for NATO?’, in J. Ringsmose and S. Rynning (eds.), NATO’s New Strategic Concept: A Comprehensive Assessment, DIIS Report 2011:2, p. 26.
Damon Coletta and Sten Rynning, ‘NATO from Kabul to Earth Orbit’, Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 10, 2012, pp. 26–45 at p. 29.
David Yost, ‘NATO’s Evolving Purposes and the Next Strategic Concept’, International Affairs, 86 (2), 2010, pp. 489–522.
Sven Biscop, ‘From Lisbon to Lisbon: Squaring the Circle of EU and NATO Future Role’, in J. Ringsmose and S. Rynning (eds.), NATO’s New Strategic Concept: A Comprehensive Assessment, DIIS Report 2011:2, p. 111.
For a contrary conclusion see Mark Webber, ‘Three Questions for the Strategic Concept’, in J. Ringsmose and S. Rynning (eds.), NATO’s New Strategic Concept: A Comprehensive Assessment, DIIS Report 2011, 2, pp. 99–105.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Steve Marsh and Alan P. Dobson
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Marsh, S., Dobson, A.P. (2013). Fine Words, Few Answers: NATO’s ‘Not So New’ New Strategic Concept. In: Hallams, E., Ratti, L., Zyla, B. (eds) NATO beyond 9/11. New Security Challenges. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230391222_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230391222_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-35152-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-39122-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)