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Editorial Team: The second theme week of our “Your Ideas, Your NATO” policy competition focused how NATO should support regional transition after the Arab Spring. Five articles were shortlisted. However, we wanted to highlight the other high quality submissions.
The second part of "Your Ideas, Your NATO" competition produced 77 op-eds. We would like to thank all of our members who contributed to the policy workshop competition.Atlantic-community.org already published the shortlisted articles for Category 2. However, we received many very good articles that regrettably could not be shortlisted. Below you will find links to the other articles. These submissions contain recommendations ...More
Editorial Team: March was filled with a number of special segments at atlantic-community.org. From our continuing Q&A series with NATO officials (the most extensive yet) to our policy workshop competition (with a second Atlantic Memo coming next week), here are the top highlights from the month.
1. Q&A with NATO's James Appathurai
James Appathurai is NATO's Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, the division responsible for the Alliance's partnership frameworks and external relations. In our 4-part video Q&A, Mr. Appathurai answered 20 questions from atlantic-community.org members about partnerships all around the world, and delivered many interesting and frank insights about where NATO's ...More
Jón Kristinn Ragnarsson: A thesis on cyber-security and critical infrastructure protection. Iceland provides the case study for the options of a small state. These are examined in terms of aiding the fight against cyber-threats.
Most modern countries depend on computers to a certain degree. With a higher dependence the risk increases, as a single system failure could make a serious dent in a state's infrastructure. Cyber-threats have become one of the best-known threats of the modern world and can be divided into several categories. These ranges from those affecting the security of the individual to serious matters of the ...More
Gökhan Tekir: To prevent a NATO attack on its country, Iran is seeking to expand its sphere of influence. However, in the long term Iran’s allies will not be able to maintain their hold on power because of domestic troubles. Such troubles leave Iran in the precarious situation of relying on unstable allies.
The probability of military confrontation between Iran and NATO is increasing with reciprocal gestures on both sides. The NATO missile defense shield is going to be launched in Malatya, Turkey on the tip of the nose of Iran. Western countries are enlarging the scope of embargoes. Iran is threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, which would lead to a reduction in oil, even if this threat might be too much for Iran to carry out. ...More
Sascha Lohmann: The West must prevent pitfalls and seize the opportunities associated with the intricate cost-benefit calculations driving Iran‘s nuclear diplomacy. Taking Iran’s desire for recognition and independence into consideration will be indispensable for successful negotiations.
Amidst the recent tough talk of the Republican presidential candidates and the drumbeats of war coming from Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu, a new round of negotiations between Iran and the five permanent
members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) will soon pick up where the
inconclusive Istanbul talks left off in January 2011. On February 15, Iran's
top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili offered the resumption of ...More
Alexander Corbeil: Given NATO’s linkages to Arab states through the Mediterranean Dialogue, the Alliance should actively support the transition to democracy in post-Arab Spring countries by utilizing its various resources in the realms of institutional creation, democracy promotion, and security sector reform.
NATO’s efforts to support the Arab Spring, particularly its operation in Libya, have brought the specter of democracy to millions of people. Tyrannical regimes have been replaced by governments, which have provided political space for their citizenries. That being said, NATO can and should do more to bolster democratic entrenchment in post-revolution countries.
NATO is one of a handful of organizations ...More
Javeed Ahwar: This thesis highlights the untouched aspects of Afghanistan that were not discussed or integrated into the process of the Bonn conferences 2001 to 2011. In particular, it discusses the agendas of these conferences in terms of what they meant on paper and in practice.
Conference diplomacy has been a major practice in post 9/11 Afghanistan. The nine international conferences on Afghanistan, from Bonn 2001 to Bonn 2011, have shown how important these events are to Afghanistan. A variety of actors from all over the world, including G8 countries, NATO members, Afghanistan's neighbors, Islamic countries, and the UN friends of Afghanistan were participants of these conferences. As ...More
Gillian Kennedy: NATO should seek to encourage a stronger collaborative relationship with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The OSCE has experience with a number of democracy-building options that are outside NATO’s expertise, but key to a stronger relationship with states caught up in the Arab Spring.
The Arab Spring has highlighted the inherent universality of the necessity for decent living conditions, respect for human rights and the implicit right for accountable institutions alongside democratic governance. The protesters from Tunis to Cairo in the past year have reflected these grievances with calls for "bread, dignity and freedom" echoing throughout the Arab world. Since NATO is an expression of the ...More
Josiah Jason Surface: NATO must take concrete steps to strengthen its partnership framework with North Africa. Inviting Libya to join, expanding the topics covered, and tying the dialogue to discussions with the Arab League will help strengthen the Mediterranean community and the ties of partnership.
Mare Nostrum or "our sea" was what the Romans called the Mediterranean. Though the Romans are gone, the name still fits because the Mediterranean belongs to a community of nations. Which is why the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has a responsibility to engage the budding governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. At the same time, NATO must also recognize that its options for engagement are limited. They are limited because ...More
Vivien Pertusot: NATO’s leverage in the Arab world is limited, and the Arab uprisings illustrated it. Transition and reform processes will leave little room for NATO. Its only options are to better clarify its expectations, to listen more, and to cooperate with other actors to offer multifaceted cooperation packages.
The Arab uprisings have highlighted an important lesson: how little the EU and NATO have influenced the regional leadership and developments. It has prompted European countries and regional institutions to question their partnership programs and tackle a key issue: What can we do better now that we failed to achieve before?
The Alliance initiated the Mediterranean Dialogue in 1994 and promoted it to a genuine partnership in 2004. It has been slow to ...More
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