Anchoring the alliance (NATO and Turkey's role in it)
On the eve of the NATO’s Chicago summit May 20 and 21, where world leaders will discuss the war in Afghanistan, defense capabilities and global partnerships, a new Atlantic Council report argues for the enduring importance of NATO, and calls for renewed leadership from the alliance’s members to ensure NATO’s vibrancy in the decade to come.
The report, titled “Anchoring the Alliance,” argues that NATO is a force multiplier for the United States and remains essential to addressing the security challenges of a globalized world. In the report, Richard Nicholas Burns, Atlantic Council Board director, former undersecretary of state, and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, argues that for NATO to remain central in the coming decade, the United States will have to provide strong leadership of the alliance, Europe must maintain its aspirations for global leadership, and the alliance as a whole must strengthen its engagement with global partners.
The report also calls for greater leadership from individual members of the alliance. While all NATO members have unique and essential contributions to make, “the responsibility for NATO’s future vitality falls disproportionately heavily on Turkey, the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, and the steps they now take toward recommitting to the alliance.”
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Turkey should be considered for leadership roles in the alliance for the first time. Turkey is Europe’s only rising power and its political influence in the Middle East is now greater than that of Germany, France or the United Kingdom. The United States and Europe should consider a Turk as a future NATO Secretary-General. For too long, Turkey has been consigned to NATO’s back bench. That must change. At the same time, Ankara is unwise to block deeper NATO cooperation with both the European Union and Israel, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government should act more decisively to protect and deepen democratic freedoms and continue efforts to normalize relations with its neighbors. The assault on press freedoms in Turkey, and the government’s arrest of more than 100 generals is deeply worrisome.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/anchoring-the-alliance-.aspx?pageID=449&nID=21091&NewsCatID=396
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